How do you find out if your a beneficiary on a life insurance policy?

I'm pretty sure you can't. That would be up to the policy holder to tell you. The insurance company can not legally disclose that information to you.

There are a lot of misleading answers here.

When a person dies, an insurance company holding the policy doesn't just get a list of all dead people within a certain time frame and then automatically send out notices that say.....hey we owe you money.

No, the only way a life insurer pays a claim to a beneficiary is if the beneficiary files a proper claim form with proof of death (a certified copy of the death certificate) with the insurer.

And, since there is no one central database with all life insurance policies in them, it is virtually impossible to find out if you are a beneficiary, if you don't already know which insurance company to query. And, since there are literally hundreds of life insurers, you could spent a lot of time needlessly checking.

What's best is to ask the person whom you think took out a policy with you as beneficary. If they are hesitant, explain to them that they've wasted their premiums if you don't know who and to whom to make a claim.

If it's too late to ask the person and you feel you may still be the beneficiary of a forgotten policy, you can try to access the financial records of the deceased and see if you can find any payments to life insurers. Somehow the person had to pay a premium and if you can track down the payment, maybe you can find who to query about possible policies.

If this all sounds a bit strange, consider this....

There is a whole line of life insurance, known generally as stranger-owned life insurance (SOLI) where a person takes out a life insurane policy on another person but names themselves the beneficiary.

Companies do this on their own employees (it's called Corporate Owned Life Insurance...or COLI). They get to take a tax deduction on the money they pay out in premiums and when they collect the proceeds on a policy, they get the payout tax free.

TheHidden hit the nail on the head with his answer above. Please note that when the insure passes away, the insurance company has no way of knowing until someone calls in and notifies--i.e. the beneficiary!! Moral of the story: when you name a beneficiary on your policy, be sure you let them know.

You can't call and ask, they won't tell you. When a person dies the insurance company will mail papers to the person who gets it.

Get a look at the policy.

The only way is to ask the policy holder and if the policy holder has made you a irrevocable beneficiary then you basically control the policy

Two ways - either you ask the policyowner, or when the person dies, you get money.

This is sort of creepy. Are you planning to move along their 'untimely' death if you are to get a few extra bucks now? becuase if you cared about them, you wouldnt kill them :/

If someone dies, and you are the beneficiary, the insurance company will inform you.

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