Home Life insurance Life insurance questions how to find a lost life insurance policy how to find a lost life insurance policy By Barbara Marquand | Posted on March 24, 2011 Why you should trust Insure.com Quality Verified At Insure.com, we are committed to providing honest and reliable information so that you can make the best financial decisions for you and your family. All of our content is written and reviewed by industry professionals and insurance experts. We maintain strict editorial independence from insurance companies to maintain editorial integrity, so our recommendations are unbiased and are based on a comprehensive list of criteria. I’m sorry for your loss. To determine if you are named as a beneficiary on a life insurance policy, your first step is to find out whether a policy exists and, if one does, to locate the documents or at least find the name of the company that issued the policy. It’s up to family members to notify the insurance company when a policyholder dies; otherwise, the company doesn’t know the insured has passed away and cannot make an effort to locate beneficiaries. To find clues about whether the policy exists, sort through your grandfather’s papers and address books, look through checkbooks or canceled checks to see if any checks were written to pay premiums, review income tax returns to look for interest income and expenses, and call the employee benefits office of your grandfather’s last and previous place of employment. Another clue could come in the mail during the year following his death in the form a premium notice for a life insurance policy, or an annual statement regarding the status of the policy. If you find a policy, contact the insurance company even if you’re not sure if it’s still in-force. For most inquiries, you’ll need a death certificate and documents that prove you’re a close relative or beneficiary. If you think there’s a good chance you are a beneficiary but still can’t find the policy, you can try the Policy Locator Service from MIB Solutions. If you use this service, your grandfather’s name would be matched against approximately 170 million records and would turn up the information if he applied for the policy in 1996 or later. For more, see how to find out if you’re the beneficiary of a life insurance policy. × Get Free Life Insurance Quotes Today! Zip Code Please enter valid zip Age Age 16 – 20 21 – 24 25 – 34 35 – 44 45 – 54 55 – 64 65+ Coverage Amount Coverage Amount $50,000 – $100,000 $100,000 – $200,000 $200,000 – $300,000 $400,000 – $500,000 $500,000 – $1,000,000 $1,000,000 – $2,000,000 $2,000,000 – $5,000,000 $5,000,000+ Coverage Type Coverage Type Whole Life Term Life Final Expense Not Sure Gender Gender Male Female Non-Binary Tobacco Use Yes No Compare Quotes QuickTake How life insurance works during a divorce Can you change the coverage of your term life insurance? 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