How to find out whether someone had life insurance after they die

A solicitor once described a probate case where a widow spent three years settling her husband's estate, closed the final account, and then discovered, by chance, in a box file under a bed, a whole-of-life policy worth £180,000. The insurer had received no death notification. The money sat there, unclaimed, while she had borrowed from her children to cover inheritance tax.

This is not unusual. The Association of British Insurers has estimated that hundreds of millions of pounds in life insurance and pension death benefits go unclaimed in the UK at any given time. The policies exist; the paperwork does not reach the right people at the right moment. What follows is a practical account of where to look.

Start with paper, then follow the money

The first place to search is physical: files, drawers, email inboxes, and the deceased's online storage if you have access. You are looking for policy schedules, annual statements, or correspondence from insurers, typically with names like Aviva, Legal & General, Royal London, Vitality, or any number of smaller providers. A policy number and the name of the insurer is all you need to begin a claim.

If paperwork turns up nothing, move to bank and building society statements. Life insurance premiums tend to be paid by direct debit on a fixed date each month, from a few pounds to several hundred depending on the cover. Go back at least two years. An unexplained monthly payment to an insurer you recognise, or one you do not, is worth tracing. Contact the bank's bereavement team; they can usually identify payees from sort codes and reference numbers even after the account is frozen.

Employer-provided death-in-service benefit is a separate matter and is often overlooked entirely. Many salaried employees are enrolled automatically in a group life scheme, typically worth two to four times annual salary, administered through the pension trustee rather than the individual. The employer's HR department or pension administrator can confirm whether a scheme existed and how to make a claim. These benefits are normally paid at the trustees' discretion to a nominated beneficiary, sit outside the estate, and do not attract inheritance tax, which makes missing them a significant loss.

Similarly, pension providers often hold life cover or a death benefit payable to dependants. Contact every pension provider you can identify, again, bank statements showing pension contributions will help, and ask specifically about death benefits and nomination of beneficiary forms. The provider may have an old address or out-of-date nomination on file; inform them promptly.

Formal tracing services when the paper trail runs cold

When private searches are exhausted, two formal channels exist in the UK.

The first is the Unclaimed Assets Register, operated by Experian. For a modest fee it searches across life policies, pensions, and investment accounts from participating financial institutions. It is not comprehensive, not every insurer contributes, but it is a reasonable first net to cast when the deceased's financial history is unclear.

The second is the Association of British Insurers' tracing service, administered through a company called the MIB (formerly the Motor Insurers' Bureau, which now operates a broader financial tracing function under the ABI's life and pensions tracing scheme). You can submit a request with the deceased's name, date of birth, and National Insurance number. Participating insurers will search their records and respond, typically within a few weeks. The service is free. It does not guarantee a result, the insurer must be a participant and the records must be findable, but it has reunited families with policies they had no knowledge of.

There is also the Pension Tracing Service, a free government service at Gov.uk, which can identify the contact details for employer or personal pension schemes using an employer's name or the scheme name. If you suspect the deceased had an old occupational pension from a previous employer, this is the appropriate starting point.

Why do so many families never claim? The reasons are mundane rather than mysterious. Policies are taken out, filed, and forgotten. The person who knew about the policy dies first. Nominees move house without updating insurers. Executors are stretched and unfamiliar with the financial landscape. And unlike a bank account, which an executor must locate to administer the estate, a life policy creates no obligation on anyone to come forward.

The remedy is straightforward in principle: the details of every policy, every pension, and every death benefit should be recorded somewhere the right people can find them after a death, long before the need arises. That means a document that lives outside the deceased's own possession and is accessible to a trusted family member or professional without requiring them to know what they are looking for.

Glenvault is built precisely for this, a private family vault where policies, pension references, and nomination records are held securely and made available to those who need them when it matters. You can begin organising your records at glenvault.com/signup.