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Life Insurance: Life

General

Life insurance - Finding lost policies

Locator will help consumers find lost life insurance policies, annuities.

The Idaho Department of Insurance and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) maintain a national service that provides consumers with search capabilities to help find a deceased person’s lost life insurance policies and annuities.

Before using this free service, it would be helpful for Executors or Personal Representatives to first check the deceased person's bank records to see if any premiums were being paid during the last year to a life insurance company and also make a diligent search of important documents to discover if any life insurance policies are found.  If you identify a specific policy then direct contact can be made to the life insurance company to find out if the policy is "in force" and then begin the claim process.

The NAIC’s Life Insurance Policy Locator provides nationwide access for assistance with finding life insurance policies and annuities. You must create a secure login so responses from various insurance companies can be reported back to you on the website. Consumer requests are encrypted and secured to maintain confidentiality.  There is no cost to this service. 

Participating insurers will compare submitted requests with available policyholder information and report all matches to state insurance departments through the locator. Companies will then contact beneficiaries or their authorized representatives.

An estimated $1 billion in benefits from life insurance policies are unclaimed, according to Consumer Reports. Since 2010, state insurance regulators have investigated unclaimed life insurance benefits. To date, nearly 23 regulatory actions have resulted in returning more than $6.75 billion life insurance proceeds to U.S. consumers.

Need a life insurance quote? Visit the AMERICAN INSURANCE online quote page here.

Updated: January 5, 2023

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