La. Makes Available Life Insurance Policy Search

February 2, 2004

Louisiana’s Department of Insurance now offers the public a means to search for the life insurance policies of deceased relatives who obtained the insurance in Louisiana, according to Commissioner of Insurance Robert Wooley. Last year, the Legislature passed a law allowing this new service to take effect Jan. 1, 2004.

Wooley says the database is necessary, based on the number of inquiries the Department receives about in-force life insurance policies. “Oftentimes, relatives have no proof that a recently deceased member of their immediate family has one or even more life insurance policies,” the Commissioner said. “Our office constantly receives questions from family members of deceased individuals who probably had life insurance. The family remembers hearing about a policy but can find no record of it.”

According to Wooley, the Department maintains a database containing electronic contact information for all life insurance companies that have policies in-force in Louisiana. Any member of the immediate family of a deceased person may access the Department’s Web site, www.ldi.state.la.us, click “Consumers,” then “Life Insurance Policy Search,” to file a request using the form provided. The form can either be filled out on-line or printed and mailed to the Department. The form MUST be accompanied by a copy of the official death certificate, which can either be scanned in or mailed. An obituary is not acceptable.

The Department then electronically sends the completed form to all of the life insurance companies operating in our state, and these individual insurers then search their records. Insurers with policy information on the deceased will report directly to the family member making the inquiry.

Commissioner Wooley said anyone with questions can contact the Department’s Life and Annuity Division at 1-800-259-5300. Department staff can mail request forms and answer questions about the process, but the Department does not maintain any individual’s insurance policy information.

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