For many generations, people have been witnessing the deaths of loved ones and learning that it would be good to provide funds for their own burial and for the well-being of young or aged spouses and young children.

In years past, life insurance agents were well known to all the members of the household. Agents made it a practice to visit homes frequently during the daylight hours, when mothers were home, caring for their children. Agents knew all the children by name, either because the agents had written an important life insurance policy for each soon after they were born, or those children were the objects of the agent's future plans to write more insurance in the future.

Later, agents began to change companies frequently. Young families moved and changed jobs frequently. All these reasons plus many others resulted in many families owning a multiplicity of coverages from companies they were not so familiar with.

Many of these policies were paid for many years and accumulated high values. These accumulated values, in turn, maintained the policies "inforce" for many years after the insured persons "forgot" about them or [worse yet] died without that information being forwarded to the life insurance company. Some of those policies were ultimately treated as lapses. Or, the insureds bragged loudly to spouses, children, and other relatives, about the policy that was "paid up" -- without giving those same persons full insight or understanding of policy terms and conditions.

Every so often, there is a funeral, requiring certain family members to assume what may become uncomfortable financial liabilities, causing other distraught persons to begin contacting local insurance offices directly, perhaps by telephone, to complain that someone very special to them died, without leaving information about in-force life insurance policies.

Insurance company home office personnel are trained to handle such inquiries efficiently. They maintain huge electronic databases. These replace what used to be hundreds of cubic feet of "alphabetical index" cards. Those cards reflected insurance histories of thousands or tens of thousands of persons who maintained contracts of insurance with that particular company, or its cluster or "group" of companies.

Most inquiring persons, however, do not know how to contact each home office directly, or do not contact the specific home office that has the records they seek.

Meanwhile, the officer or clerk employed by the home offices to respond to this type of inquiry frequently finds "no record." In that event, the employee must be well trained to respond adequately to the next question that will inevitably follow: "What should I do now?" or "Do you know any other home office addresses for companies I can contact?"

The Lost Life Insurance Finder Expert service (LLIFE) was organized for just this purpose. Our Mission: "To provide a suitable response, through private enterprise, to support the needs of such distressed persons."

There are a couple of things you may want to try on your own before turning to LLIFE. You should always check all available records, canceled checks, and old checkbook registers for indications that insurance premiums might have been paid. State Insurance Commissioners maintain offices in capital cities to respond to general questions without charging any fees to individuals for their information.

There is a small fee for LLIFE services. The cost is less than the cost of the U.S. postage stamps you would need to send a similar number of direct inquiries. For this fee, LLIFE will develop a presentation of the facts for your particular situation and forward appropriate inquiries on behalf of distressed family members, who are or think they may be life insurance beneficiaries, directly to major life insurance company headquarters.

Our contacts are almost always presented in writing to companies who are then asked to respond directly to you in writing. In major home office claim centers, this is not a telephone call/interruption. Service and Claim personnel have time to carefully search all appropriate records and to compose the necessary response. Moreover, LLIFE has no interest in sharing in the confidential information that may be warranted between the companies and the deceased's family members. We merely introduce them to each other, by presenting the facts and requesting a written response directed to the proper address as supplied.

Companies separately request any forms and/or authorizations they may require directly from the appropriate family members. Also, if no record exists, the companies are requested to say so. Reporting that information directly to the Inquirer may provide the family with a certain peace of mind. Or, it may be assuring to them to know that no policies were in force with that specific company [or family of companies], that should have been processed as claims, but otherwise may have been overlooked.

Of course, any information that a particular company might locate pertaining to the Inquirer may or may not have already been disclosed, and this process gives these companies adequate time and information to determine what is appropriate, in accordance with usual business practices, to disclose to the inquiry.

With these thoughts in mind, perhaps you might find it helpful to inform individuals who contact your Agency directly about LLIFE services. Simply ask them to write to us.