How to file a life insurance claim after someone dies

Priya found the policy in a shoebox in her mother's closet, folded inside a birthday card from 1997. It was a $150,000 whole life policy from a company that had changed its name twice since then, and she was listed as the beneficiary. She was relieved for about four seconds. Then she realized she had no idea who to call, what they'd want from her, or whether a 27-year-old piece of paper still meant anything.

It did. And the process of filing a life insurance claim turned out to be far less mysterious than she feared, once someone explained the order of things. This guide walks through how to file a life insurance claim after someone dies: what documents you'll need, how to find a policy you're not sure exists, how long a payout takes, and what to do if the insurer says no. It's general information, so if the policy is large, contested, or tangled up with an estate, a lawyer or a fee-only financial planner is worth a call.

How to file a life insurance claim, step by step

To file a life insurance claim, you contact the insurance company, tell them the policyholder has died, and send them a certified copy of the death certificate along with a completed claim form. The beneficiary files the claim, not the executor, unless the estate itself is the beneficiary.

That's the whole thing in two sentences. Here's what it looks like in practice.

1. Get certified death certificates. The funeral home usually orders these for you. Ask for more than you think you'll need, since banks and pension plans may each want their own. Ten isn't excessive.
2. Find the policy number and the insurer's name. The policy document, an annual statement, or a bank record of premium payments will usually have both.
3. Call the insurer's claims department. Tell them the insured person has died and that you're a beneficiary. They'll open a claim and send you a claimant's statement, either by mail or through an online portal.
4. Fill out the claim form. You'll give your name, Social Security number, relationship to the deceased, and how you'd like to be paid.
5. Send the form and death certificate together. Some insurers also ask for a copy of the policy, your ID, or an attending physician's statement.
6. Keep a log. Write down every call: the date, who you spoke to, and the claim number. It sounds tedious, and it is, right up until you need it.

If there are several beneficiaries, each one usually files their own claim form for their share. If one of them has died, the insurer will want that person's death certificate too, and their share typically goes to any contingent beneficiary named on the policy.

Most people do this a few weeks after the funeral. Some can't face it for months. Both are fine. Life insurance isn't usually on the urgent list in the first week, unless the family needs the money to cover the funeral or the mortgage, in which case it moves up.

What if you can't find the policy?

People keep life insurance policies in strange places, and some keep them nowhere at all. A surprising number of policies are never claimed because the family simply doesn't know they exist.

If you suspect there's a policy but can't find it, look through the person's bank and credit card statements for recurring payments to an insurance company. Check their mail and email for annual statements, and look in safe deposit boxes, desk drawers, and the files of their financial advisor or accountant if they had one. Their employer's HR department is worth a call, too. Group life insurance through work is extremely common, and many people forget they have it because it's deducted from a paycheck they never look at closely.

Coverage also hides in less obvious places. Unions, professional associations, alumni groups, and credit unions sometimes offer small policies. Some credit cards and bank accounts include accidental death coverage. Veterans may have coverage through the VA. Federal employees often have FEGLI, which is handled through the Office of Personnel Management rather than a regular insurance company.

If all of that comes up empty, the NAIC Life Insurance Policy Locator is free to use. You submit a request with the deceased person's information, and participating insurers search their records. If they find a policy and you're the beneficiary, the company contacts you directly. It can take a few months, and you won't hear anything if nothing is found, which is frustrating but normal.

Older policies sometimes end up with the state as unclaimed property. Each state runs a search tool, and MissingMoney.com, operated by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, searches many states at once.

Priya's policy was the easy kind. A quick search turned up the company that had absorbed her mother's original insurer, and the 1997 policy number still worked.

How long does a life insurance payout take?

Most life insurance claims are paid within 30 to 60 days after the insurer has everything it needs. Many states require insurers to pay within a set window once they have proof of death, and to add interest if they pay late.

A few things slow claims down. The biggest is the contestability period. For the first two years after a policy is issued, the insurer is allowed to review the original application to check whether the person told the truth about their health and smoking history. If the policyholder died during that window, expect the company to request medical records, and expect the claim to take longer. A death after two years is usually much simpler.

Delays also happen when the cause of death is still under investigation, when the death happened abroad, or when the beneficiary information is unclear. A missing or outdated beneficiary is one of the most common problems, and it's almost always avoidable. Our guide to beneficiary designations explains why these forms carry more weight than most people realize, and why they can override a will.

If a claim seems stuck, call and ask plainly what's missing. Claims processors often need one more document, and nobody told you.

How you can get paid

When you fill out the claim form, the insurer will ask how you want the money. The usual choice is a lump sum, sent by check or direct deposit. Some insurers also offer installments over a set number of years or an annuity that pays for life.

You might also be offered something called a retained asset account. It looks like a checkbook, and the insurer holds the money and pays you interest until you write checks against it. There's nothing wrong with these, but the interest rate is often low, and the account isn't always insured the way a bank account is. If you're not sure, it's reasonable to take the lump sum, put it in a regular savings account, and decide what to do with it later. Nobody needs to make big financial decisions in the first months after a death.

On taxes, the IRS says life insurance proceeds paid because of the insured person's death generally aren't taxable income. Interest is different. If the payout arrives with interest attached, or you choose installments that earn interest, that portion is taxable. Large estates can also run into estate tax questions, which is a good moment to bring in an accountant.

When the beneficiary is a child, the estate, or nobody

Life insurance usually skips probate, which is one of its quiet advantages. The money goes straight to the named person. That changes in a few situations, and each one adds steps.

If a minor is named as beneficiary, the insurer can't hand a child a large check. Unless the policyholder set up a trust or named a custodian under their state's Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, a court typically has to appoint someone to manage the money until the child comes of age. That person may need to report to the court on how it's spent. It works, but it's slower and more expensive than it needed to be.

If the estate is the named beneficiary, or if every named beneficiary has died, the money goes into the estate. At that point it's handled by the executor through probate, and it becomes available to pay the deceased person's creditors before anything reaches the family. That's a real difference. When a living person is named, the policy usually stays out of reach of the estate's creditors, which we cover in more detail in our guide to what happens to debt when you die.

If two people both claim the same policy, perhaps an ex-spouse and a current spouse, the insurer may refuse to pick a side and deposit the money with a court to sort out. This is called an interpleader, and it's exactly as unpleasant as it sounds.

What to do if a life insurance claim is denied

If a life insurance claim is denied, ask the insurer for the reason in writing, along with a copy of the policy and any documents they relied on. Denials happen, but they aren't always final.

The common reasons are a policy that lapsed because premiums weren't paid, a death during the contestability period where the insurer believes the application left something out, a death covered by an exclusion such as suicide in the first two years, or simple paperwork problems. Paperwork problems are the easiest to fix. A lapse is worth checking carefully, too, because many policies have a grace period of about a month, and some insurers were required to send a lapse warning that never arrived.

From there, you can file a written appeal with the insurer. If the policy came through an employer, it's probably governed by a federal law called ERISA, which has its own appeal process and deadlines, so read the denial letter closely and don't let the window pass. For individual policies, you can also file a complaint with your state insurance department, which costs nothing and sometimes gets a stalled claim moving again. If a lot of money is at stake, a lawyer who handles insurance disputes can tell you whether the denial holds up. Many will review a case for free.

Making this easier for the people you leave

Most of what makes a life insurance claim hard is the searching. Families lose weeks hunting for policies that were sitting in a drawer the whole time, or learning that the beneficiary form still names someone who died in 2015.

You can fix nearly all of that in an afternoon. Write down every policy you have, including the one through work: the insurer, the policy number, the rough amount, and who's named. Check that the beneficiaries are still the people you want, and name a contingent beneficiary in case your first choice dies before you. If you have young children, ask an estate attorney whether a trust makes more sense than naming them directly. Then put the list somewhere your family will actually look. A letter of instruction is a good home for it, since it's meant to be read first and changed often.

Priya told me later that what got to her wasn't the money. It was the birthday card. Her mother had tucked the policy inside it on purpose, she was sure of it, so that whenever Priya found it she'd also find a note in her mom's handwriting that said "Happy 20th, my girl. Always taken care of." If you want to leave something like that, with less guesswork, When I Die Files lets you store your policy details right next to the letters you want your family to have, so the person filing the claim also gets to hear from you.