Look through money and papers first
Go through bank statements for the last year or two and look for a regular payment to an insurer or an insurance company's trading name. Even a small monthly amount can belong to a policy with a large payout. Check credit card statements too.
Then search the paperwork at home: filing boxes, desk drawers, old email accounts and anything stored with the will. Insurers send annual statements and letters about premium changes, so a single envelope can give you the name and policy number.
Look at payslips too. A deduction labelled for life cover or a pension scheme points to cover arranged through work. Old tax returns or an accountant's files can reveal business policies, such as relevant life cover, which a company director may have arranged through their limited company.
- Bank and credit card statements
- Letters, statements and policy schedules
- Email inboxes and online banking
- Papers kept with the will or mortgage documents
Ask the people who would know
Contact the person's employer, and any recent past employer, to ask about death in service cover and pension benefits. Employers usually pay these through their own scheme, so they will not show up on bank statements.
Speak to the solicitor who wrote the will, any financial adviser or broker they used, and the lender on the mortgage. A lender sometimes asks borrowers for proof of life cover, and an adviser keeps records of what they arranged.
Check whether the person ever had an endowment mortgage, a pension with a death benefit or a savings plan with life cover built in. These products often paid out on death too. Older relatives may remember conversations about policies that left little trace on paper, so ask around the family.
Contact insurers and tracing services
If you have a good idea which insurer it might be, write to its claims team with a copy of the death certificate and the person's full name, address history and date of birth. Remember that insurers merge and sell books of policies, so an old company name may now belong to a different firm.
If you have no leads at all, the Unclaimed Assets Register searches records from many financial firms. It may charge a fee, so check the cost before you use it.
Once you find the policy, ask the insurer for a claim pack. It will tell you who can claim, whether a trust is in place and which documents to send. If the policy sits in trust, the trustees claim and the money does not wait for probate. If not, the executor claims as part of the estate.
How Hi Tomorrow can help a family trace cover
If you hold cover with us, we keep a record of what we arranged, and your family can ask us. Telling your loved ones where your documents are, and writing the policy in trust, also makes life easier for them.
If you are tracing a policy someone else arranged, we can explain where to look and what the insurer will ask for once you find it. Our team is here Monday to Friday, and you can send a message through the site at any time.