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When my mother died I paid for her funeral (prepaid plan actually) myself, as I assumed she had no life or burial insurance. I am an only child. In the last decade or so of her life, she didn't want to discuss anything of a financial or "business" nature, so I just didn't ask, went ahead and set up a prepaid plan with a funeral home when she entered a nursing home. She passed away in 1999.
This weekend I got a form letter from a life insurance company stating she did have a policy and if I returned this form with her death certificate they would write a check. As it turns out, had she lived she would be 100 YO this year. Is this the point at which companies start researching beneficiaries? The insurance company is legitimate and there was a policy number, name of the person to send it to, etc., but I feel a little leery about sending the death certificate because of the personal information in it--SSN, etc. If this is on the level, would there be interest accrued from the date of her death to the present? It was a complete surprise to me!
Recently several states have forced various life insurance companies to be more pro-active in locating beneficiaries of "unclaimed" benefits. For years they would just sit on their hands and do nothing to locate people like you.
Don't worry too much about Mom's SSN. They already have it, and anyone can get it from the SSA's Death Index, which is on-line at various genealogical websites.
Thank you reed303. I appreciate your providing the link and it's reassuring to know the information on her death certificate probably will not be compromised.
I'm still not sure that I would send the death certificate without validating the company and authenticity of the letter. There are a lot of scams out there involving the use of a dead person's information for everything from voting to perhaps, collecting unclaimed life insurance payouts. Can you at least phone the company and speak with a representative ... and possibly verify their information online?
thank you, good advice--I have found a phone number and luckily it is in my home state. There is also the name of the person I'm supposed to return the form as in ATTN: to.
My point is at some point the information does get posted as public information. I think it was a social security site where I noticed the information about a family member.
Insurance companies do periodic social security number sweeps to find dead policyholders, which is how they found out about your mom (if legit). They do pay interest, at least in states I'm familiar with.
You might receive the benefit payout in the form of a checkbook linked to an account balance holding the benefit amount. In that case, you can just write yourself a check for the full amount and cash it or deposit it in whatever personal account you want.
Insurance companies do periodic social security number sweeps to find dead policyholders, which is how they found out about your mom (if legit). They do pay interest, at least in states I'm familiar with.
You might receive the benefit payout in the form of a checkbook linked to an account balance holding the benefit amount. In that case, you can just write yourself a check for the full amount and cash it or deposit it in whatever personal account you want.
for that amount they would not set up a BMA...they would just cut a check and close the file.
yes, insurance companies are using the SSDMF (Social Security Death Master File) looking for lost policyholders and completing due diligence to make sure that they pay what they owe.
I'm still not sure that I would send the death certificate without validating the company and authenticity of the letter. There are a lot of scams out there involving the use of a dead person's information for everything from voting to perhaps, collecting unclaimed life insurance payouts. Can you at least phone the company and speak with a representative ... and possibly verify their information online?
Death certs are a matter of public records in a lot of places. I order them online from time to time for folks I'm not related to
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Yes,
