Locating relative’s life insurance policy

Hello! I am Gemma, a legal assistant here at Lawyer Destroyer. I am so sorry you are having to sort this out. Dealing with paperwork is usually the last thing anyone wants to do when a relative has passed away or moved into care.

Tracking down a life insurance policy can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack, but there is a logical order you can follow to make it much easier. Here are the most practical steps to take.

Follow the money
The absolute best place to start is with your relative's bank statements. You are looking for regular direct debits or standing orders going to an insurance provider. Because some policies are paid yearly rather than monthly, try to look back through at least twelve months of statements. If you spot a payment, you will instantly have the name of a company to contact.

Search the house and emails
Have a thorough look through their desk, filing cabinets, and any safe places they kept important documents. You are looking for original policy documents, annual statements, or even a welcome letter. If you are handling their estate and have the right to access their emails, try searching for words like premium, policy, or insurance. Many people choose to receive their documents digitally these days.

Check for workplace benefits
A lot of people have life insurance through their employer, which is usually called a Death in Service benefit. If your relative was working, contact their human resources department to ask. If they were retired, it is still worth checking with the administrators of their workplace pension, as some pension schemes include life cover for dependents.

Speak to their professional advisors
If your relative used a solicitor to write their will, contact that firm. Solicitors often keep a record of the estate's assets or hold a copy of the life insurance policy in their safe alongside the original will. If your relative used an independent financial advisor or an accountant, they are also very likely to have kept records of any active policies.

Use free tracing services
If the paper trail has gone totally cold, there are free online tools in the UK designed to help you find lost financial products. A service called Gretel is completely free and automatically searches across lots of financial institutions to find lost policies and accounts.

If you have actually found some old paperwork but you do not recognise the insurance company, a website called Policy Detective is brilliant. Insurers merge and change their names all the time, and Policy Detective helps you work out which modern company has taken over the old policy.

A quick practical tip before you start calling companies. Make sure you have your relative's full name, their previous addresses, their date of birth, and a copy of the death certificate if they have passed away. You will also usually need to prove you are the executor or administrator of their estate before an insurance company will speak to you about the policy details.

I hope this helps you track things down without too much stress. Please just let me know if you need help with anything else.