An executor's checklist for life insurance after a death

If you have just been named executor, life insurance is probably one of the smaller tasks on a long list, and also one of the easiest to get wrong, because most policies do not pass through you at all. A policy with a living, named beneficiary pays that person directly. Your job is to find every policy, make sure the right people know to claim, handle the ones that are payable to the estate, and keep the records the tax preparer will need.

This checklist is grouped by what you are trying to do, with the reason for each item. It is general information; the court that appointed you and an estate attorney are the places for questions about your authority in your state.

First, sort out what an executor can and cannot do with a policy

Before you contact anyone, it helps to know where your role begins and ends.

• If a living person is the named beneficiary, that person files the claim and receives the money. You can help them, but you do not collect it, and it does not count as an asset you distribute under the will.
• If the estate is the beneficiary, or every named beneficiary has died and no one is left to take, the proceeds are payable to the estate. You claim them and they go through the estate. See why naming your estate as beneficiary is usually a mistake for how that changes the timeline and the creditors' position.
• If the person who died owned a policy on someone else, such as a parent who owned a policy on an adult child, that policy is an asset of the estate. It does not pay out, but it has a value and a new owner must be decided.
• If the person who died was the insured under a policy someone else owned, such as a business policy or a policy owned by a trust, the owner or trustee claims. You may still be asked for documents.

Keep this sorting in mind as you go through the rest. An executor's early mistake is usually to assume that every policy is "the estate's," then to wait for probate before telling beneficiaries to call the insurer. There is generally no need to wait. A named beneficiary does not need the will probated to file a claim.

Group 1: Find every policy

The first job is a census. A person can have individual policies, coverage through work, credit-card or loan coverage, association or union coverage, accidental death coverage and annuities, and some of these are easy to miss.

• Go through mail, files and email for the last two to three years. Look for premium notices, annual statements and anything from an insurer. The reason: a policy that is still in force produces paper every year.
• Check bank and card statements for recurring payments to insurers. Even small monthly drafts can point to a policy nobody mentioned.
• Ask the employer's benefits office about group life, supplemental life and accidental death coverage. Many employees buy extra coverage through payroll deduction and forget it.
• Ask about coverage through a union, professional association, alumni group, mortgage lender, credit card or auto club. These are the policies most often overlooked.
• Check for military or federal coverage. Veterans and federal employees may have SGLI, VGLI or FEGLI coverage, covered in the guides on those programs.
• Ask the family's agent, accountant or attorney. They may know about a policy the family does not.
• Run the NAIC Life Insurance Policy Locator and your state's unclaimed property search. These are the backstop when paper has gone missing. The lost life insurance policy finder walks through every place to look, and how to find a lost life insurance policy explains how each search works. Treat any person who offers to find policies for a percentage as a warning sign; the legitimate searches are free.
• Make a single inventory. Record the insurer, policy number, type, owner, insured, beneficiaries and where the paperwork is. Everything below runs from this list.

Group 2: Gather the documents before you call

The insurer will ask for the same few items, and having them ready cuts the back-and-forth.

• Order certified copies of the death certificate. You generally need an original certified copy for each insurer, and banks, retirement plans and the Social Security Administration may want their own. If your state offers versions with and without the cause of death, life insurers usually need the one that shows it. It is cheaper to order a few extra at the start than to reorder later.
• Locate your own letters of authority (sometimes called letters testamentary or letters of administration) if the court has issued them. You need these only where the estate is a claimant or owner. They are not required for a beneficiary to claim in their own right.
• Get the decedent's Social Security number, date of birth and a copy of the will, if one exists. Insurers use these to match records.
• Use a call-back number you looked up yourself. Take the phone number from the policy, the insurer's website or a statement, never from an unexpected caller. Scam callers target families in the weeks after a death.

Group 3: Notify the insurers and the beneficiaries

• Tell each named beneficiary that a policy exists and which insurer holds it. Give them the policy number and the claims contact. The reason: they are the claimants, and many do not know they were named.
• Open a claim for every policy payable to the estate. Ask the insurer what it needs from an executor. Expect a claim form, a certified death certificate, a copy of your letters of authority and some identification.
• Ask each insurer for a written acknowledgment and a claim number. Write down the date and the name of the person you spoke with. The life insurance claim checklist gives a tracking sheet for each policy.
• Ask about the payout options. Most claims can be paid as a lump sum by check or direct deposit; some forms default to an insurer-held account. documents you need for a life insurance claim describes what a claim file usually contains, and how to file a life insurance claim covers the claim from the beneficiary's side.
• If the death was within two years of the policy date, expect a records request. The insurer can review the application for material misstatements during the the two-year contestability period (two years in most states). This is routine, and it can slow payment. Keep copies of everything you send.
• If the beneficiary is a minor, tell the insurer at the start. The insurer will want a guardian, a custodian named on the form or a trustee. See how life insurance is paid to a minor.

Employer coverage deserves its own call

Group life is usually paid through the employer's benefits office and the insurer together, and an employee often has more than one layer: basic coverage, supplemental coverage, and accidental death and dismemberment coverage. Ask for each layer by name. The accidental death layer, in particular, can carry earlier notice deadlines than ordinary life coverage, so call it first. Also ask whether the decedent had dependent coverage on a spouse or child that now needs attention.

Group 4: Handle proceeds payable to the estate

When the estate itself is the beneficiary, the proceeds become an estate asset and follow the estate's rules.

• Deposit the money into the estate's account, not your personal account. Open an estate account if you have not, using the estate's tax ID number. The reason: mixing funds with your own invites later disputes with the beneficiaries of the will.
• Treat the proceeds as available to creditors and expenses. Unlike proceeds paid to a named person, estate-payable money can be reached by creditors who file valid claims in probate. See does life insurance go through probate? for the order of payment, and the state's rules on the creditor claim period.
• Do not distribute early. Pay the expenses, taxes and valid debts first, then distribute under the will or the state's intestacy rules. Early distribution can leave you personally exposed if the estate turns out to be short.
• Keep a ledger of every deposit and payment. You will account to the court or the heirs.

Group 5: Policy loans and unpaid premiums

Not every policy pays its face amount.

• Ask each insurer for a statement of any policy loan and accrued interest. An outstanding loan is subtracted from the death benefit before payment. The family often learns this only when the check is smaller than expected. The mechanics are in life insurance policy loans: how they work and what they risk.
• Check whether the policy was in force at the date of death. A policy that lapsed for unpaid premiums may still have been in its grace period, which is commonly 30 or 31 days, and the insurer will say what it found. If it had lapsed, ask whether any reduced paid-up or extended-term value remained.
• Ask about premiums paid past the date of death. Automatic drafts may have continued. Ask the insurer to refund premiums covering any period after death.
• Look for a refund of unearned premium on policies that have ended with the death.

Group 6: Tax statements and filings

• Ask whether the estate may owe federal estate tax. For people who die in 2026, the federal basic exclusion is $15,000,000 per person according to the IRS, so most estates are well below it. A larger estate, or one near the limit, may need to file a federal estate tax return, and the insurer will be asked to supply a statement of its policies. The post on reporting life insurance on an estate tax return and who files what explains what that statement is and who prepares the return.
• Check your state's estate or inheritance tax. Some states tax estates far below the federal level, and the filing rules differ.
• Remember the beneficiary's income tax picture. A death benefit is generally not taxable income to the beneficiary, but interest the insurer pays on a delayed claim is, and the insurer reports that interest. is life insurance taxable? covers the exceptions. If the estate is the beneficiary, any interest may be reported to the estate.
• File the decedent's final income tax return and any estate income tax return the accountant recommends. Life insurance proceeds are usually not income on those returns, but the accountant needs to know about interest and about any policy cash values the estate surrendered.
• Keep all insurer letters and statements for the preparer. The preparer will ask for them even when the numbers do not appear on a return.

Group 7: Unclaimed property and loose ends

• Search the state unclaimed property database for the decedent and the decedent's late spouse. Insurers must turn over benefits they cannot pay to the state after a dormancy period, and the money can still be claimed. See unclaimed life insurance money and state unclaimed property. Use only your state's official site or the national multi-state search, and never pay a "finder."
• Check old addresses. If the decedent moved often, search the earlier states too.
• Notify the Social Security Administration if the funeral home has not. Eligible survivors may qualify for survivor benefits and a one-time $255 lump-sum payment. SSA confirms who is eligible and the current amounts.
• Look at annuities and retirement accounts, which have their own beneficiary forms and their own claim procedures separate from life insurance.
• Deal with any policy the decedent owned on another person. Decide with the family and the attorney whether the policy should be kept, transferred to a new owner, or surrendered, and ask the insurer to record the new owner. Do not surrender it on impulse; a policy on a younger, uninsurable family member can be hard to replace.

What the checklist looks like in practice

Say Marguerite names her daughter Alicia as executor. Marguerite, 74, leaves a will, a home, and a pile of mail. In the first weeks, Alicia finds three things: a whole life policy from decades ago naming Marguerite's late husband as beneficiary and, as contingent, Alicia and her brother; a small final-expense policy naming the funeral home on an assignment; and a letter from the former employer about a retiree group life benefit of $10,000.

Alicia lists all three. The whole life policy pays the two contingent beneficiaries directly because the husband died first, so Alicia tells her brother, they each file a claim and she sends the insurer the death certificate. The final-expense policy was assigned to the funeral home, so it pays part of the funeral bill and Alicia only confirms the amount. The retiree benefit is payable to the estate because Marguerite never named anyone, so Alicia files the claim as executor with her letters of authority, and the $10,000 is deposited into the estate account to be used for expenses. A search of the unclaimed property database turns up nothing. Two months later the insurer on the whole life policy writes that a loan of $4,000 reduced its payment. The example is invented and the sums small, but the pattern is typical: three policies, three different claimants, one outstanding loan.

A short list of mistakes to avoid

• Assuming all policies belong to the estate.
• Waiting for probate before telling beneficiaries to claim.
• Depositing estate-payable proceeds into a personal account.
• Paying a stranger to locate policies.
• Cancelling or surrendering a policy the decedent owned on another person without the family's agreement.
• Forgetting the grace period and the loan statement when the check is smaller than expected.
• Throwing out insurer letters before the tax return is filed.

If a claim is denied or delayed without explanation, how to file a life insurance claim describes the next steps, and your state insurance department takes complaints at no charge. A dispute over who should be paid is a matter for an attorney.

Key takeaways

• Most life insurance pays named beneficiaries directly; you handle policies only when the estate is the payee or owner.
• Build one inventory of every policy, including group, association, credit and accidental coverage, before calling anyone.
• Order enough certified death certificates and keep a log of every call, claim number and document sent.
• Estate-payable proceeds belong in the estate account and stay available to creditors, so do not distribute early.
• Ask each insurer for loan balances and for the statement the tax preparer will need, and search unclaimed property last.