How should I organize and store my life insurance records?

March 12, 2009

The last thing you want to happen after you die is for your beneficiaries to be unable to locate and submit a claim on your life insurance. To prevent this, you should have copies of your life insurance records in at least two places. This is to make it less likely that you’ll lose them (to fire, flood, accidental discarding, etc.) and more likely that, after your death, your beneficiaries will find them.

What information should I keep?

  • The full name of the life insurance company that issued the policy
  • The city and state of the home office of the company that issued the policy
  • The name and U.S. headquarters of the group, if the issuing company belongs to a group of companies
  • The policy number
  • The date the policy was issued
  • The amount of the death benefit
  • The name and address of the agent/broker who sold you the policy
    The type of policy (e.g., term, whole life, etc.)
  • The location of the original life insurance policy

Courtesy Insurance Information Institute   http://www.iii.org