Life Insurance M.I.A.? Service helps Locate a Missing Life Insurance Policy!

Written on August 9, 2010 – 12:00 pm | by Sara Steel

A life insurance policy can be of enormous help in the event a loved one dies. But what if you can’t find the life insurance policy, or don’t know any details about it – not even what company the insurance was with?

A special Policy Locator Service, created by the Medical Information Bureau or MIB for short, may be your best resource. MIB’s fraud detection services are used by most life insurance companies to help underwrite insurance applications. The MIB Policy Locator Service taps into the data base of the MIB Retail Division to scour 170 million records and investigate whether the deceased had applied for a life insurance policy at any time after December of 1996.

It’s not difficult to lose track of life insurance coverage for a loved one. Policyholders may fail to inform beneficiaries of the policy’s existence because they subject is too unpleasant to to discuss. On other occasions, survivors are aware that a policy existed but don’t know the name of the insurance company. Depending on the life of the policy, an Insurance company may have changed its name or been acaquired out by by another company, deepening the mystery even further.

The detective work can be all- important. While insurance companies would like to pay out what is rightfully due, the responsibility to claim benefits lies with the beneficiaries. If you suspect that a life insurance policy may have been applied for since after December 1996, MIB may be able to help.

Insurance Locator Services – Born in the Aftermath of 9/11

Where did the idea for a Life Insurance Locator Service come about? It was the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks that led to its creation since many policyholders kept their life insurance policy information at work. When insurance information was destroyed in the World Trade Center bombing. MIB came to the rescue by helping survivors locate missing life insurance information and get the benefits they were due – all for free. Two years later MIB commercialized the service and began charging $75 for a search.

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind if you consider doing a missing insurance policy search.

• MIB only has information on individually underwritten life insurance, not group insurance. This means insurance through one’s employer will not be recorded.

• If the policy was applied for prior to December 1996 or the person died prior to that date, it will not be contained in the database.

• Persons eligible to submit a search request are the representative of the decedent’s estate (executor or administrator) or the surviving spouse. If there is no estate representative or surviving spouse, then a child of the decedent may submit a search request.

Here’s how to order a Missing Policy Report.

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