States Benefit from Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits

Hundreds of millions of dollars in life insurance benefits go unclaimed each year because beneficiaries don’t know it exists. The money is eventually transferred to state unclaimed property divisions that profit from the money in the meantime. Since 2000, New York has received over $400 million in unclaimed life insurance property. Florida has about $355 million in unclaimed life insurance.

How can you find out if you are owed life insurance benefits? Insurance is regulated by the states, so there is no central location to turn to in locating policies. One option is to contact the MIB Group, an insurance industry organization that maintains a database of 170 million records dating back 14 years. Another alternative is to hire a tracer. A tracer scours public records for lost property and will provide you with information for a percentage of assets you recover. Most of the time, people who discover insurance policies do so based on pure luck.

See Paul Sullivan, Tracking Down and Collecting Unclaimed Life Insurance, N.Y. Times, Feb. 25, 2011.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this to my attention.