Life Insurance Settlements - How To File A Claim

For anyone who has lost a loved one, filing a claim for life insurance settlements is not something your look forward to. It's hard enough at times in coping with your loss. Fortunately, the process is pretty straightforward once you have the required paperwork. Here is a look at what you'll need.

Although most all life insurance companies are the same in handling claims, you'll want to be sure you call your insurance agent and find out exactly all the papers you need. If it's an employee life plan, get in touch with the benefits manager of the company.

Get a list together of all life insurance policies, along with the actual policy if possible. This could involve some research on your part because many folks will carry life insurance from credit card companies, employers, banks and a host of other possibilities.

It could be helpful to look over bank and credit card statements to see if there were payments being made on life policies you didn't know about.

Next, you'll need copies of the death certificate. This is a requirement in filing any claim for life insurance settlements. At the same time you may want to gather together mortgage papers, loan papers and even credit card statements. This can make things much easier in the event you need copies.

You will then fill out a form for proof of death, which will be sent back with the copy of the death certificate. Your insurance agent will get you these forms.

There will be other forms as well, such as one that goes to the IRS, etc.

After everything is filled out and sent back, it usually takes the insurance company around one week to process it. If there is anything missing, they will get back to you with what is wrong.

If everything has been filled out correctly, the company will send you, the beneficiary, a settlement check. Depending on the payment option that was set up when buying the policy, proceeds are generally paid out all at once.

Life insurance proceeds are income tax free so this is not an issue.

Some life insurance policies will have regularly scheduled payments. This is more common with children.

Receiving the proceeds from life insurance settlements is fairly easy if you have all the required papers in easy reach.