Life Insurance

[Missy Snell]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania
My Grandparents started a life insurance policy for me at birth. I am 38 years of age and my father and stepmother have pretty much disowned me. My grandparents have past away in the last year or so and i was told nothing about the policy. Is it possible that my father was able to take it over?

 

[Dandy Don]

No, that is not very likely. Do you know anything about the policy--the name of the insurance company, for example?

 

[Missy Snell]

That has been my main problem in finding anything out about this. I was contacted by an insurance company right after the death of my grandfather. They had informed me that the policy was of a considerable amount and that I could contact them further if I had any questions. I wrote the name of the company down along with the address, phone number, etc. on a piece of paper to look into further. I had several back to back catostrophic events happen in my life immediatly following this which in the chaos I realized later had resulted in the loss of this information. I assumed I would be contacted again or atleast receive something in regards to this in the mail, to which I haven't. Not sure exactly how to go about finding out which company this was and by not being contacted again had led me to believe that possibly my father and stepmother who are Trustees of my grandfathers estate my have control over the policy.

 

[cbg]

If your father and stepmother had taken over the policy, you wouldn't have been contacted in the first place.

It is unusual for a company to make multiple attempts to contact you. Having done so once, and given you the information, from their perspective you have not cared enough to contact them. They don't know that you had several life-shattering events and lost the contact information. For all they know, you aren't interested. I understand what happened and that you don't have the contact information any more, but it isn't their job to keep contacting you until they are able to pay out the claim.

 

[Missy Snell]

I understand this perfectly. I am fully aware that the ball is in my court. I am unaware however on how I can go about finding this information out other than calling every Insurance company in Dauphin County, Penn. and asking.

 

[cbg]

I don't mean this to be sarcastic, but you're probably going to have to start phoning.

I think a lot of people assume that there is some sort of central clearing house for insurance policies, where all the information about who has a policy with what carrier, exists. It doesn't. At least, it didn't when I was working in insurance, and I think I'd have heard if some kind of central data base was being set up. There'd be massive repercussions under HIPAA, for example.

 

[Dandy Don]

Ask a local physician the name of the local agency (something like Medical Information Bureau) where you can order a copy of your medical records. Sometimes the insurance companies leave notations on your medical file if they contacted your physician to check on the status of your health and there may be a mention there of the name of the insurance company that made an inquiry on you.

As an alternative you may also want to visit the website www.L-LIFEINSURANCE.com (LOST LIFE INSURANCE)--they do national searches through 400 of the top insurance companies in America for an $89 fee.

Too bad there isn't an easier way to go about this!!