As per the recent report by the treasurer of Oklahoma; in US alone, life insurance policies of worth at least $1 billion are still unclaimed. This means that the lifelong investments that many individuals made for their beloved ones are still waiting to be claimed.
Death is uncertain and undeniable; making it a mystery at times, for the ones left behind, to find out that what else, apart from the reminiscent memories, the dead person has left for them. Many people leave their inheritance very organized to avoid any conflict after their demise. However, often, people don’t even get enough time to tell their family members about the life insurance policy that needs to be claimed after their death.
Here, the role of the insurance company is also questioned that whether it comes as a part of their duty to track down the beneficiaries of their dead customers or not. If yes, then to what extent should they search for the rightful owners of the money?
Whit Cornman, the spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurers in Washington, D.C. says that life insurance companies do make potential efforts to find the beneficiaries of the insurance policies. In fact, some companies have even got separate departments to trace them.
Since, it is unfair to those who don’t know that they inherit an insurance refund; the lawmakers are trying to come up with definite laws, making it compulsory for the insurers to check promptly for the clients who have passed away and also contact the beneficiaries, to pay them the rightful money.
However, it can’t be comprehended at the moment that how practical the rule would prove to be or whether the insurance companies will support it or not. This is because, tracking clients and their legitimate heirs, is both time and money consuming. And therefore it is being said the companies might refuse to support this law.
Furthermore, the law would also need to make it clear that how far an insurance company should go to find the legit beneficiary of the insurance policy – as they can’t continue endlessly till they find someone to claim it.
But is it the duty of the policy insurer only to find the dead one’s relatives? Are the relatives too, not bound to check all the legal documents for such an unclaimed insurance? Definitely they are. Since, they are the ones benefiting from that insurance money; it is their responsibility too, to find whether they have been entitled to any fund by the dead person or not.
Although, there seems to be a need of such a rule for unclaimed insurance policies, but the lines for its implementations are still not well defined.
