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Did Grandma have a safe deposit box at her bank? That's the first place to look. Also, check through her old check registers, to see if she ever wrote a premium check to an insurance company. If you find such information in her check register, see if you can locate the policy number. Most insurance companies seem to have an easier time locating a policy by its number than by the insured's name.

Also, try calling Grandma's homeowner's or auto insurance agent. In many cases, people tend to buy life insurance policies from the same agents that issue their homeowner's or auto policies. (If the agent is no longer available, call the home office of the company that issued the home or auto policy.)

If Grandma had a credit card, try calling them. It's possible she might have taken a life policy through the credit card's life insurance affiliate. Also, see if her bank is affiliated with an insurance broker (or agent). Many banks have such affiliations and get referral fees from the writing agency--so check with the bank to see where they refer their customers for insurance.

If you believe Grandma might have bought such a policy many decades ago, it's possible she bought it from one of the old established insurance companies. Names that come to mind among long established companies are: Met Life (then called "Metropolitan"), New York Life, John Hancock Life, or Northwest Mutual. Again, having a policy number is important, because very old policies are sometimes maintained in a separate database from more recently issued policies. You may be calling the right insurance company, but the person looking up Grandma's name may fail to look in the database of very old policies. Make sure they look into ALL databases.

Also, look in attic spaces, floor spaces, and feel behind furniture for any envelopes that are taped to back of dressers, mirrors or other furniture. Many seniors are "notorious" for hiding insurance policies and cash in hidden places around the house; especially if they were born before the Great Depression era.

I'm a licensed insurance agent, and I can tell you that there are thousands of insurance companies, and they are controlled at the state level, so there is no national registry of policies I am aware of. This can be frustrating for those searching to see if there is any insurance money to be paid out. Keep in mind that Grandma may not have had an active policy: the policy could have lapsed long ago for missed premiums or it was cashed out if it was a cash policy. If Grandma was in poor health the last several years, it's possible she could not get an insurance company to issue her a policy.

You can try to contact the State Department of Insurance in your state. Just type in "department insurance" on the Yahoo search bar, and it will pull up all 50 state insurance departments. Click on your state, and contact them from there or by phone.

The state departments of insurance probably won't have a database of who is insured, but they might be able to provide some guidance. For example, they can tell you which insurance companies are permitted to issue policies in your state, which could help to narrow your search down.

Are you sure she even had one? Did she have a safety deposit box? Does she have any living children or grandchildren that might know? Sounds like you might have to get the entire family together to sort it all out. If she had a will the insurance policy may have been mentioned in there.

I surely have in no way heard of a coverage the place you in basic terms pay up front and in no way back. i assume it somewhat is obtainable, yet no longer very probably. My wager is that the full volume you have been informed blanketed the expired coverage. in case you think of that there grew to become right into a coverage won presently (mid-1990's to recent), then you truly pays money to the medical suggestions Bureau for a itemizing of the place she utilized for coverage, after which you would be able to ask each and each of those companies, one after the different, if she offered one in each and every of their regulations. My opinion is that it can be a waste of time and money.

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