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Untraceable beneficiaries

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It sometimes happens: a life insurance policy comes to payment, but the person who is entitled to it is without a trace. Insurers are actively looking for these so-called untraceable beneficiaries. Because a benefit must end up where the customer wanted it.

Backgrounds

Life insurance policies are often taken out for a long time. As a result, it sometimes happens that by the time the insurer has to pay out, the rightful claimant is untraceable. For example, because the customer has moved and has not communicated a change of address. Or because relatives do not know that the deceased was insured and do not report to the insurer.

Insurer seeks beneficiary
It is primarily the customer's own responsibility to report address changes, and the beneficiary's own responsibility to claim a benefit. Nevertheless, insurers are actively looking for beneficiaries. And that is important: the benefit must end up with the persons that the customer has designated. In order to search for beneficiaries as successfully as possible, the Covenant and its members have collected and shared many search methods with each other in recent years.

Are you an insurer and do you want tips for looking for an untraceable rightful claimant? Then log in and view the list of tips at the bottom of this page.

Beneficiary seeks insurer
It also happens the other way around: customers who contact the insurer because they have lost their policy or because they do not know whether a deceased loved one was insured. To this end, the Covenant has created a special search service. This is intended for:

  • Families. For example, if they want to know whether a deceased person was insured. Municipalities that provide a funeral for a deceased person can also submit an application.
  • Policyholders. For example, if someone has taken out life insurance, but has lost the policy due to a fire. The customer can apply for an investigation himself, but a court-appointed trustee or administrator can also do this.

This search service was consulted more than 2900 times in 2016.

Last changed on: 11/07/2023