Life Insurance Clu: What To Check And How

Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) is a professional designation for individuals who wish to specialize in life insurance and estate planning. The American College of Financial Services awards the CLU designation, which is considered the gold standard of life insurance professionals and insurance planning. To receive the CLU designation, individuals must complete a series of courses and examinations. The curriculum covers a wide range of topics, including insurance planning, estate planning, taxation, investments, and retirement planning. Maintaining the designation requires 30 hours of continuing education every two years, and it may be revoked for misconduct or unethical behaviour.

How to find an unclaimed life insurance policy

Locating a missing life insurance policy can be challenging, especially if you are still grieving the loss of a loved one. Here are some steps to help guide you in your search:

Speak with Family and Close Friends:

People close to the deceased may have information about the policy, such as its storage location, beneficiaries, or the name of the insurance company. If they had an insurance agent, that person might also be able to help.

Contact the Insurance Company:

If you know the name of the insurance company or agent, reach out to them directly. You will likely need to provide proof that you are a beneficiary, such as your driver's license, social security number, and the policyholder's death certificate.

Review Documents:

Search through the deceased's physical and digital documents, including papers, files, safe deposit boxes, and any other places they may have used to store important information. Check bank statements for premium payments or indications of withdrawals from a life insurance policy.

Contact the Deceased's Advisors:

If you don't know their insurance agent, try reaching out to their accountants, attorneys, bankers, or financial professionals. These individuals may have information about the policy or can direct you to the appropriate resources.

Use a Life Insurance Policy Locator:

Organizations like the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), MIB Group, and the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators offer free online tools to help locate unclaimed policies. You will need to provide the deceased's personal information, such as their social security number, legal name, date of birth, and date of death.

Contact the State's Unclaimed Property Office:

When an insurance company is aware of a client's death but cannot locate the beneficiary, they must turn over the benefit to the state where the policy was purchased. If you know or can guess the state, you can search its unclaimed property database through the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.

Be Aware of Special Challenges:

There may be circumstances that complicate your search, such as the insurance company changing its name, selling the policy to another company, or going bankrupt. The NAIC provides resources to help locate insurance companies that have undergone such changes.

Additionally, keep in mind that fee-based services are available if you need further assistance. MIB, an insurance membership corporation, offers services for a fee to help find evidence of life insurance applications. Several private companies also provide similar services for a fee.

Financial documents, personal contacts, and employers

Financial documents are reports compiled by businesses that detail the company's financial activities and health. These include the balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flow, and statement of changes in equity. Financial documents are often audited by government agencies and accountants to ensure accuracy and for tax, financing, or investing purposes.

When checking for a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation, it is important to review financial documents that demonstrate an understanding of life insurance concepts and their application in financial planning. These documents should showcase knowledge of individual insurance products, insurance reserves regulation, and tools and strategies for annuities. Additionally, legal aspects of life insurance, such as policy provisions, incontestable clauses, assignments, and ownership rights, should be addressed.

Personal contacts refer to your business clients or customers, marked with a designated icon and label. These contacts are typically only accessible to you unless shared with other users. In the context of CLU, personal contacts could include clients who require holistic insurance and risk planning.

Employers, on the other hand, refer to the company or organization you work for. In the context of CLU, employers could be financial planning or insurance companies that employ individuals with the CLU designation to serve their clients' needs.

Overall, when checking for the CLU designation, it is essential to review financial documents, understand personal contacts, and identify employers to ensure a comprehensive understanding of an individual's expertise in life insurance and its practical applications.

The NAIC Life Insurance Policy Locator Service

To use the NAIC Life Insurance Policy Locator, go to the naic.org website, hover over 'Consumer', and click on 'Life Insurance Policy Locator' under 'Tools'. Log in and agree to the terms of use and the process. Then, enter your name, mailing address, and email address. After that, submit a search request by entering the deceased’s information from their death certificate, including their Social Security number, veteran status, and your relationship to the deceased. Once all the required fields have been filled, click 'Submit'.

Your request will be stored in a secure, encrypted database that participating life insurance and annuity companies can access through a secure portal. You will receive a "Do Not Reply" email confirming the details of your request. If a policy is found and you are the beneficiary, the insurance or annuity company will contact you directly. If no policy is found or you are not the beneficiary, you will not be contacted. It is important to note that the NAIC does not have any policy or beneficiary information.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is a state-based system of insurance regulation in the United States. The organization provides expertise, data, and analysis to insurance commissioners, enabling them to effectively regulate the industry and protect consumers. NAIC is governed by the chief insurance regulators from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories. Through the NAIC, state insurance regulators establish standards and best practices, conduct peer reviews, and coordinate regulatory oversight.

The state's unclaimed property department

If you're looking for unclaimed life insurance payouts, one place to start is your state's unclaimed property department. Each state has different rules on how long it takes for a policy to be considered dormant—that is, for the funds from the policy to be declared unclaimed or "dormant". This period is typically between three and five years, but it's one year in Arizona and North Dakota. After this period, you can search for unclaimed funds in the state where the deceased last resided or where they bought their policy.

The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators' Missing Money site is a free service that allows you to search multiple state databases simultaneously for unclaimed funds, not just from insurance payouts, but also from utility companies, retailers, and others. You can begin the claims process instantly if you find what you're looking for.

Additionally, several state insurance departments, including California, New Jersey, New York, and Michigan, have search tools for policies registered in their respective states. Some life insurance companies, such as John Hancock, MetLife, and New York Life, also have online policy search tools. If you believe you are the beneficiary of a U.S. veteran's policy, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has a searchable database.

The MIB Group, an insurance membership group with over 420 member companies, maintains records of life insurance applications dating back to 1996. For a $75 fee, you can submit a request to their Policy Locator Service to find out where an individual applied for insurance. This is not a guarantee that a policy was taken out, but it can be a helpful starting point.

Remember, there is no deadline to file a life insurance claim, but it is recommended to do so as soon as possible to receive the payout faster.

Other ways to search for unclaimed policies

If you don't know whom to contact or how to find out if a life insurance policy exists, try these tips to locate old life insurance policies and unclaimed insurance money:

• Sort through paperwork — Check your loved one's filing cabinet or safe-deposit box for records of a life insurance policy. You may have luck by searching through old tax returns and bank statements. Remember that sifting through stacks of paperwork can be time-consuming and emotionally draining when dealing with losing a loved one; other methods of tracking down old life insurance policies may be more efficient.
• Search with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) — NAIC has an online Life Insurance Policy Locator Service that uses the deceased's name to search the records of participating life insurance companies. This service is free, confidential, and easy to use. To use the service, you must have the suspected policyholder's legal name, Social Security number, and dates of birth and death.
• Check with your loved one's financial advisor — You may find life insurance policies of a deceased parent or other loved one by giving their financial advisor or accountant a call. If their client gave them permission to do so, a financial advisor may have already contacted the life insurance agency and can help beneficiaries file a claim.
• Conduct a free search with the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) — NAUPA has a free tool to locate lost or unclaimed insurance money and other property. Select your state, and you can see if there's a record of any insurance benefits or money owed to you.
• Contact previous employers — Many companies offer life insurance in their employee benefits packages. Contact the HR department at your loved one's most recent employer to see what they have on file. Companies may have a record of life insurance policies for past employees.
• Try the state insurance department — Unclaimed life insurance eventually gets passed on to the state insurance department if the insurer is aware that the policyholder has passed away but the beneficiary hasn't filed a claim. NAIC can provide you with the insurance department contact details for the state in which your loved one held a policy.
• Search company websites to locate life insurance policies — Some major life insurance companies have policy locators to help potential beneficiaries determine if they’re able to collect. Companies with policy locators include John Hancock, MetLife, and New York Life.
• Government, state, and industry life insurance policy finders — During your search, you might find that the life insurance company contacts you. Insurers often use the Social Security Administration's "Death Master" file, which keeps records of all its recipients who have died. The Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act requires most life insurance companies to check this database at least twice a year to find unclaimed life insurance policies. The New York Department of Financial Services has a "lost policy finder" that lets the executor or administrator of an estate, or even a member of the deceased's immediate family or closest relative, create a search request, provided they submit basic information and a copy of the death certificate.
• Paying for help to locate life insurance policies — Several online search services are available, but they usually charge for their services. There is a national database for all individual life insurance policy applications made to U.S. and Canadian insurers. If the deceased applied for a policy after 1996, MIB Group will probably have a record of the insurance company to which they applied. It costs $75 to get a report.

Frequently asked questions