How to find out if someone had life insurance, and how to claim it after a death
Where to look for life insurance after a death, how to trace an old policy, who can claim, when probate is needed and how payouts count for Inheritance Tax.
How do you find out if someone had life insurance?
The quickest way is to look for evidence of premiums, because a policy that was still in force will usually have been paid by regular direct debit or card payment. The Association of British Insurers suggests going through bank and card statements for payments to an insurer, and a few months of statements will often show the name of the company even when the policy document itself has gone missing. Once you have a name, the insurer can confirm whether a policy exists and tell you what it needs to see before it discusses the details with you.
Paper and digital records come next. Policy schedules, annual statements and letters about bonuses tend to be filed with other financial papers, and Marie Curie's guidance on claiming life insurance also suggests asking the person's email provider about access to their emails, since a policy run online may have left no paper trail at all. If the person used a financial adviser, ask the adviser what they arranged, and if they kept a list of their accounts, that is worth finding early.
Where else might life cover be hiding?
A good deal of life cover is arranged as part of something else, so it does not always look like a life insurance policy. The places to check are:
Work. Marie Curie notes that the person may have had cover through their employer as well as any policy of their own. Our guide to death in service benefit explains how employer cover works and how to claim it.
The mortgage. A policy taken out to pay off a mortgage may have been assigned, and a policy which is joint, assigned or in trust does not usually pay the estate, so check the mortgage paperwork to see where the money is meant to go.
Loans, credit cards and finance. MoneyHelper advises checking whether the person took out insurance to pay off a debt, whilst warning that payment protection insurance usually only pays out for unemployment or illness. Business Debtline adds that some hire purchase agreements came with insurance that clears the agreement if the person dies.
Over-50s plans. MoneyHelper describes these as policies that pay a fixed cash sum to the chosen beneficiaries in return for a fixed monthly premium, and although people often buy them with funeral costs in mind, they are a different product from a prepaid funeral plan, so check which one the paperwork describes.
Old door-to-door policies. Industrial branch policies, sometimes called penny policies, were small life policies sold door to door, most common in the 1960s but sold until 1997, with premiums collected in cash by an agent and recorded in a receipt book, so keep any old receipt book you find.
Memberships. If the person belonged to a trade union or professional body, ask whether their membership included any death benefit.
How do you trace a lost or old life insurance policy?
If you know the name of the insurer but cannot reach it, the company may have changed its name or been taken over, which is common with older policies. The ABI publishes an A to Z directory of life and pension providers showing which company now administers policies from firms that merged or were acquired, with current contact details, so a policy from a name that no longer exists can usually be followed to its current owner.
When you contact the insurer, give it as much as you can, such as the policyholder's full name including any maiden name, their date of birth, their current and previous addresses and the policy number from a document or receipt book, because an insurer tracing an old policy with no policy document or receipt book to go on may not be able to help, which is why a scrap of old paperwork is worth keeping.
For unclaimed life insurance where you have no idea which company was involved, the ABI suggests using an unclaimed assets tracing service, although it does not name one. Older advice often points to the Unclaimed Assets Register, a paid search that Experian ran for around 20 years, but it closed on 29 August 2022, so any guide that still sends you there is out of date, and Which? noted at the time that the newer services had much smaller databases. Our guide to unclaimed money from deceased relatives covers the tracing routes that remain, and our guide to finding the bank accounts of someone who has died covers the same kind of detective work for current and savings accounts.
Who can claim life insurance after a death?
Who claims depends on how the policy was set up, and the policy schedule or the insurer will confirm which of these applies:
Written in trust. The money is paid to the trustees, who pass it to the beneficiaries of the trust. A trust claim avoids the probate process, which often makes payment faster.
Joint policy. A joint policy usually pays the surviving policyholder.
Single policy, not in trust. The money is paid to the estate, so the executor or administrator claims it and it is shared out under the will or the intestacy rules along with everything else.
Assigned policy. If the policy was assigned, the payment goes to whoever it was assigned to rather than to the estate.
The set-up also decides whose money it is. MoneyHelper explains that life insurance paid to a nominated beneficiary does not form part of the estate, whereas a policy with no nominated beneficiary may, and money that lands in the estate is available to pay the estate's debts before anything is shared out, which our guide to what happens to debt when you die explains.
Do you need probate to claim life insurance?
For a policy written in trust you do not usually need probate, because the trustees claim with the death certificate and the trust deed, whereas for a policy that pays the estate the insurer will normally want to see the grant of probate or letters of administration before it releases the money. Insurers commonly list a copy of the will, trust deed or grant of probate among the documents they ask for, and waiting for the grant is one of the main causes of delay in paying claims that go to the estate.
Requirements vary, and GOV.UK's probate guidance says plainly that every organisation has its own rules, so ask each insurer early what it will accept. If a grant is needed, it helps to know the value of each policy before you apply, because the payout counts towards the value of the estate, and our guide to applying for probate sets out the steps. In Scotland the equivalent of a grant is confirmation, and HMRC notes that policies payable to the estate are listed on the inventory, form C1.
How do you make a life insurance claim?
You start by contacting the insurer's claims team with the person's name, the policy number if you have it and the date of death, and the insurer will tell you whether it needs a claim form and which documents to send. Insurers typically ask for the policyholder's name and the policy number when a claim is first reported, with the death certificate as the main evidence for a life claim, and they may also ask for birth or marriage certificates, photo ID and a copy of the will, trust deed or grant, so it is worth asking how originals will be returned before you post them.
Some insurers also ask the person's GP for a report, which tends to be the slowest part, because a GP can take a few weeks to reply. Most claims are paid, and the ABI's figures for 2025, which combine individual and group policies, show insurers paid 96.7% of new life claims, with an average payment of £83,892, and 100% of new whole of life claims, where the average payment was £7,631.
Is life insurance counted for Inheritance Tax?
It depends on whether the policy was in trust. HMRC's form IHT410 asks for the sums that insurers pay to the estate because of the death, and those amounts are added to the value of the estate, whereas policies payable to beneficiaries under a trust do not form part of the estate, although the form still asks about them. A joint policy that continues after the death is reported on form IHT404 instead, and a mortgage protection policy is listed separately from the property and the mortgage it relates to.
If the person paid premiums on a policy for the benefit of someone other than their spouse or civil partner in the seven years before they died, the form asks you to give details on form IHT403, which covers gifts. Our guide to form IHT410 walks through each question.
What can you do if a claim is delayed or turned down?
Ask the insurer to explain in writing what it is waiting for, or why it has declined or reduced the claim, since a delay is often down to something outstanding, such as the grant or a GP report, and knowing which tells you who to chase. If you disagree with a decision, ask whether the insurer has an appeal process, because some will have the claim looked at again by someone who was not part of the original decision.
If that does not resolve it, make a formal complaint. The Financial Ombudsman Service says a business has up to 8 weeks to consider most complaints, and you then have 6 months from the date of its final response to bring the complaint to the ombudsman, whose service is free.
What to do next
Go through several months of the person's bank and card statements and list every payment to an insurer.
Search their papers and emails for policy documents, annual statements and old receipt books.
Ask their employer, pension schemes and mortgage lender whether any life cover was in place.
Look up any insurer you do not recognise, or cannot reach, in the ABI directory.
Contact each insurer, ask whether the policy was in trust, joint or assigned, and ask what it needs to pay the claim.
Keep a note of each policy and its value for the probate application and form IHT410.
Life insurance is one strand of a wider search, because the same statements that show a premium also show the bank accounts, pensions, loans and subscriptions the person had, and each of those needs to be found and told about the death. If you would like help with that part, Legacy Trail's Account Discovery Service searches for accounts the family does not know about, insurances included, and then notifies the companies it finds, whilst our free notification service lets you tell the providers you already know about.
Frequently asked questions
Start with their bank statements, because a monthly payment to an insurer is the most reliable sign of a live policy, and then check their papers, emails and employer for cover. If you find an insurer's name that no longer exists, the ABI's directory shows which company now runs its policies.
If a policy is not in trust and has no nominated beneficiary, the money is usually paid to the estate. The executor or administrator collects it, uses the estate to pay any debts and then shares what is left under the will or the intestacy rules.
It varies by insurer and by how the policy was set up. A policy in trust can often be paid without waiting for a grant, whereas a policy paid to the estate usually waits for probate, and a request for a GP report can add a few weeks.
The ABI does not point to a central register of life policies. It suggests checking statements and using a tracing service if the insurer is unknown, and the Unclaimed Assets Register that older guides mention closed in August 2022.
You can if the policy names you, for example as the surviving joint policyholder or as a trustee or beneficiary of a trust. If the policy pays the estate, only the executor or administrator can claim it, although you can tell the insurer about the death and pass on the details.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Individual circumstances vary. If you are dealing with an estate, consider taking advice from a solicitor who specialises in probate. For other guidance specific to your circumstances, speak to a funeral director, Citizens Advice, or a regulated financial adviser.