Life Insurance How can you tell if someone has taken out a secret life insurance policy on you? By Insure.com | Posted on September 27, 2010 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. It’s highly unlikely that anyone has taken out a secret life insurance policy on you. Why? The process of buying a policy makes it difficult for someone to do it without your knowledge. Most policies require a medical exam for the person whose life is being insured. In addition, the insured is required to sign a consent form for the release of medical records. Even policies that don’t require a medical exam require your signature, and often there’s a follow-up call after the policy application is submitted. In addition, a person applying for a life insurance quote on your behalf must have an “insurable interest” in you. An example is a spouse who relies on your income to survive or a business partner who depends on you to keep the enterprise afloat. In other words, your neighbor can’t take out a policy on you. However, it’s not entirely impossible for someone to buy a life insurance policy on you without your knowledge. For example, parents can buy a life insurance policy on a child under 15 without his or her signature. If they never inform the child about the policy, the child may never know the policy exists. In addition, it’s possible for a person with group life insurance through an employer to sign up a spouse for life insurance without the spouse’s knowledge. Group life insurance policies don’t pay out huge benefits, though. And until 2006 companies could take out policies on employees without the workers’ knowledge, but controversy over those policies put an end to that practice. For more in-depth information, get further answers to can someone have a secret life insurance policy on you? Related Articles Can I take out a life insurance policy on my spouse? By Penny Gusner What happens to the cash value of my whole life insurance policy when I die? By Nupur Gambhir What is guaranteed cash value in a life insurance policy? By Laine Adley Can I withdraw money from my term life insurance? By Nupur Gambhir Do life insurance policies pay out if a person dies of old age? By Les Masterson Can you cash in a paid up life insurance policy? By Les Masterson