How To File a Life Insurance Claim?

Life insurance is designed to pay out a sum of money either on the death of the insured person or after a set period. The last thing the beneficiary wants to deal with is the stress associated with filing a claim and collecting on a life insurance policy.

To help alleviate the stress caused by the Life Insurance Claims process, we have put together a list of standard operational procedures to assist you in filling your claim with the least amount of stress possible.

Standard Operational Procedures for Filling a Life Insurance Claim

Procedure 1: Obtain several copies of the insureds Death Certificates. If you’re completing an individual claim form, you’ll need to fill out personal details about you and the insured, such as:

Full name
Address
Date of birth
Social security number
Your relationship to the insured
Insurance policy number(s) you’re making a claim on; if you don’t know the policy number, you may search for it by calling the Insurance carrier or online through their policy finder search engine.

If you’re completing a trust/entity claim form, you’ll need to fill out personal details for the insured as described above AND information about the trust/entity, such as:

Full name of estate/trust/entity
Your relationship to the estate/trust/entity (i.e. executor, trustee, CEO)
Address for the estate/trust/entity
Date trust established (if claiming on behalf of a trust)
Tax identification number for trust/estate/entity
Insurance policy number(s) you’re making a claim on; if you don’t know the policy number, you may search for it by calling the Insurance carrier or online through their policy finder search engine.
Documentation of your authorized representation for the trust/estate/entity.

Procedure 2: Call your insurance writing agent/broker. He or she can help you fill out the necessary forms and act as an intermediary with the insurance company. If you cannot find the writing agent/broker; contact the Insurance carrier directly to start the claims process.

Procedure 3: Complete the proper Life Insurance Claims form provided by the Insurance carrier. Each beneficiary submitting a claim must complete
and submit a separate claim form. However, we only
need one death certificate. Please answer each question fully and accurately. If you return this form with missing or incorrect
information, it will delay your claim.

Prodecure 4: Submit a certified copy of the death certificate from the funeral director along with the Life Insurance Claims form to the Insurance carrier. This will initiate the claims process. You can submit your claims documents via:

Online
If you’re an individual beneficiary: complete online
If you’re a trust or entity: complete online
Email to your Insurance carriers preferred email
Fax to your Insurance carriers preferred fax number
Mail via USPS to the address provided on your Insurance carriers claims kit

Procedure 5: Check the status of your claim. Once the insurance carrier receives the documents, you can call their customer service team for updates. If you’re filing as an individual beneficiary, the carrier typically sends you a status updates via email or text if you selected one of these options when completing the claims kit. Otherwise, they will automatically notify you by mail of your payment status or if they need more information from you.

How Long Will It Take to Approve My claim?

Once the Insurance Carrier receives your claim, they will review everything within 5 business days and respond to your claim within 10 business days if we need more information from you.

How Are Life Insurance Claims Paid?

Once the claim is submitted, a settlement should be issued to you shortly. Once a life insurance claim is submitted, you must determine how the proceeds will be distributed. These are some of the options available:
Lump sum—You receive the entire death benefit in a single amount.
Specific income provision—The company pays you both principal and interest on a predetermined schedule.
Life income option—You receive a guaranteed income for life. The amount of income depends on the death benefit, your gender and your age at the time of the insured’s death.
Interest income option—The company holds the proceeds and pays you interest on them. The death benefit remains intact and goes to a secondary beneficiary upon your death.

If There are Multiple Beneficiaries, How will You Get Paid?

Each beneficiary needs to submit a claim kit in order to get paid. The Insurance carrier will pay each beneficiary their proceeds separately as they receive the required claim documents from each of them. They typically don’t require all beneficiaries to make a claim before making payment to each individual.

Once The Insurance Carrier Approves Your Claim, How soon will You Receive Your Payment?

Typically, Once the Insurance carrier approves your claim, they will send your payment via USPS within 5 business days. Please note, mail delivery times may vary.