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States and federal agencies are holding billions of dollars in unclaimed property
and missing money. Assets are considered legally abandoned when contact
with owners is lost - typically due to an unreported address change
or the expiration of a postal forwarding order, name change after marriage or divorce, and incomplete or
illegible records. These funds are
transferred to a government trust account in a legal process known
as escheat. Here they await your claim. Life insurance companies are among
the largest holders of unclaimed money. Generally it is the job of the
beneficiary to notify the insurer of a policy owner's death. There is no central repository or clearinghouse
for unclaimed life insurance policies, and virtually no effort is made
to find lost beneficiaries.
More than one-quarter of all life insurance policy benefits go unclaimed on death of the
insured, due to long dormancy periods and because family
members aren't always aware a policy exists.
In addition to unclaimed
policy benefits, many policyholders and heirs may be entitled to an
unexpected windfall - demutualization compensation. Demutualization is
the process of converting a mutual life insurance company owned by
policyholders, into a publicly traded stock company owned by
shareholders, pursuant to a plan of conversion approved by government
regulators.
As a
growing number of mutual life insurance companies -
including MetLife, John Hancock,
Prudential and others -
have converted to stock ownership, millions of current
and former policyholders and heirs are now entitled to receive stock and
cash, in addition to
policy benefits.
The amount paid to each policyholder is
based on a number of factors, including length of time the policy has been in force,
policy face and total premiums paid. For many policyholders and heirs the
windfall arising from demutualization can be substantial, but
millions have failed to come forward and claim their
share.
When John Hancock demutualized, it did not have current
addresses for 400,000 policyholders. Prudential could not locate 1.2 million
policyholders, and 60 million MetLife shares arising from its demutualization went
unclaimed. Contact efforts were unsuccessful,
due to name changes after marriage or divorce, unreported changes of
address, expired postal forwarding orders and non-current beneficiary
information.
By law,
unclaimed demutualization compensation is remitted to the custody of a
government trust account until claimants come forward.
Current and former policyholders and
their heirs - the majority of whom are unaware they're entitled to unclaimed
stock and/or cash - should initiate a database search. Complete
the form below for an
Unclaimed Life Insurance Policy Benefit Search
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