Life Insurance

Your goal is to find out whether this company is operating today in some form, whether it was bought out, merged, or went completely kaput. Ultimately, you want to know whether the policy you're holding is still in force.

"Insurance companies just don't disappear," said Rhonda D. Orin, a policyholder's attorney and managing partner of Anderson Kill & Olick in Washington. "You can't end a company without recording it. There's a record somewhere. It's just a matter of finding the record."

To locate the company now responsible for paying a claim, you need to go first to the agency that handles insurance matters in your state. There you should be able to learn the status of an insurance company, how many times it was acquired, when it changed its name and its current structure.

"It's key that somebody knows at least some part of who the policy is from," said Ben Gonzalez, spokesman for the Texas Department of Insurance. "We can't help people if they just know that their relative had a policy, but they don't know what company."

There are businesses that will do such a search for you. MIB Solutions Inc. in Westwood, Mass., offers a policy locator service for $75 a search.

The company, which has one of the largest life insurance databases in North America, offered free assistance to families of those who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and to victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

MIB's nearly 500 member companies write 95 percent of all premium dollars for life insurance policies purchased by individuals in the U.S. and Canada. It doesn't search for group policies offered by employers.

After you've received contact information, call the insurance company and tell them that you have a copy of a policy issued to your relative and that you want to know whether it is still in force. Generally, if your relative kept paying the premiums, the policy should be valid.

"The big thing that people don't understand is the privacy issues," said Paul Torres, managing partner of New England Financial in Dallas, which is owned by MetLife. "They can't expect a fast answer to this. If they don't have enough information up front and they don't have a legal right to the information, then they have to go through the correct channels."

At MIB, before the company will conduct a policy search, the surviving spouse, next of kin or legal representative of a deceased person must submit an application with a certified copy of the death certificate with an official seal.

If you don't have a copy of the insurance policy but know that your relative bought insurance, there are places you can look for clues: your loved one's address and telephone books, bank records or canceled checks and previous income tax returns.

"There is always a trail," said Etti Baranoff, associate of professor of insurance and finance at Virginia Commonwealth University and a former Texas insurance regulator. "Don't get discouraged."

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