Look it up
Check the agent. Find a lost policy.
Official places to check a license, file a complaint, or find out whether someone who died left a policy. Each one was checked in September 2026.
Where to look
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Your state insurance department
States license insurance agents and companies, so your state's department is where to check a license or complain. NAIC's map links to all 56 state and territory departments.
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NAIC Consumer Insurance Search
Look up an insurance company's complaints, licenses and financial health, and check the company names in your policy.
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File a complaint
Free.
How to take a problem to your state insurance department after you've tried to fix it with the company. Most departments take complaints online, by mail or by phone.
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NAIC Life Insurance Policy Locator
Free.
If someone died and you think they had a policy, search for it here. Insurers check the request, and you're contacted only if there's a match and you're the beneficiary. Searches can take 90 business days or more.
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Unclaimed property search
Free.
If you can't find a policy for someone who died, the money may have gone to the state as unclaimed property. This searches participating states at once.
Two examples of a state license lookup: Texas agent lookup and Washington agent and company lookup. Find yours through the NAIC map above.
If someone died
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If nobody's named
If you don't name a beneficiary, or your beneficiary has died, the company pays the death benefit to your estate.
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Social Security's death payment
$255
Social Security may pay a one-time $255 lump-sum death payment to a surviving spouse who was living in the same household. Other survivors can qualify when there's no such spouse.
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Taxes on the payout
Life insurance money you get as a beneficiary because the insured person died generally isn't taxable income, and you don't have to report it.
Source: IRS, Life Insurance and Disability Insurance Proceeds
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Taxes on interest
Any interest you receive on top of the death benefit is taxable, and you should report it.
Source: IRS, Life Insurance and Disability Insurance Proceeds