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Lost Insurance Companies
One of the insurance companies you are counting on may be lost, changed its name, moved, or gone forever, and you don't even know it yet. This could be a disaster for you, or for your family.
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One Out Of Five
When my father died it came as a rude shock that his burial insurance policy could not be found, nor the company located that we thought he had used. Then (with only hours to spare before all the money for Daddy's final arrangements came out of my pocket, we discovered not just one life insurance policy, but FOUR!
Unfortunately, every last one of those life insurance companies had disappeared from their original address!. Consequently, I learned the hard way what families in distress go through as I scurried to learn the latest address for those companies.
Taking time out in a time of grief to find those insurance carriers at that critical period was quite frustrating.
In talking this over with our funeral director we learned this is an all too frequent development at a time when any problem can be almost overwhelming to the family. Some statistics indicate that up to 20% of life insurance policies are never cashed in for payment. That means almost one out of five people could not find their insurance company when they needed it most!
Do you KNOW where your insurance company is now? The chances are one out of five that you don't!
Now there is FREE help available if you have an old insurance policy, and can't find the company when a parent or loved one passes on.
Earl H. Roberts, whose wife Marleen owns American Insurance Depot, has spent years piecing together a long list of current insurance company address and phone numbers. When asked why so many companies could not be found, Mr. Roberts explained that Perhaps:
* the name has changed
* the company has been bought out
* or it has merged with another company
* or it no longer exists
* or the company moved off down the street or across the state line
* or hasn't kept track of the policy holder for some other reason.
* Or, gulp, maybe the policy holder moved away and didn't tell the company!
"The fact is," Mr. Roberts continued. "If you haven't had contact with your insurance company in the last ten years it may have passed through three hands since then. IF your policies were passed on to a new company at each stage then there is every chance the value has increased. Of course, there is also the possibility that your policy did not get passed on and it no longer exists."
Every day of the week Earl gets letters and urgent phone calls from people who don't know where their life insurance company is now. "One of the families I worked with early on had last had contact with their grandfather's insurance company in 1894."
Is it true that some of these "lost" companies are STILL taking money from clients after three or more name changes -- none of which were ever reported to their customers?
"Oh yes. For instance, a few months ago I received this letter: 'To this day (35 years later) P* L* insurance company is still taking premiums from his Army retirement check, however he has lost the policies and does not know how to contact the company. Please help --'"
One company at a time, for thousands of different individuals, Earl has tracked down the migration of insurance company names and entities. The ones he found that have their own web site he has linked to in alpha-numeric order BY CATEGORY so you can find them easily, and for FREE.
Free?
Earl nods. "Yes. Marleen has the site set up so all you have to do is click on the kind of insurance company you are searching for and the whole list of companies with a web site presence appears as if by magic. All the links take you directly to the company itself."
What if the company you are seeking is not listed on any of those pages Earl has set up?
Earl keeps a list of all the other companies he has found on his computer at home -- and the company you are looking for may well be on it.
"There is a partial list of these second-line company names he has found listed on Marleen's web site at:
http://www.AmericanInsuranceDepot.Com/lost.htm -- but I'm afraid that I don't have time to keep the list up to date on the new companies that I find."
If the insurance company name you are looking for is anywhere on that LONG list then Earl has definitely already tracked it down to the latest known destination. Even if it isn't there, ASK. Many more names have already been found. So, what is Earl doing with this list?
"I give it away, one piece at a time," he responds.
of course. For example, if one of your parents or one of your children has died recently and you have an insurance policy but can't find the latest address of the company, Earl will look it up for you free of charge. If you don't have internet access you can mail your request to him (Earl H. Roberts) at 1303 Hamilton in Mena, AR. 71953. He does ask you to PLEASE include an envelope which has been addressed to yourself, along with two first-class stamps PAPER CLIPPED TO YOUR LETTER for his response.
What's another situation? "If you work in a lawyer's office and have found a policy in probate but can't find the latest address of the company, I will look it up for you free of charge -- under certain binding conditions which are clearly stated before hand."
There's one more situation. "If you are a minister, or if you work in a mortuary or funeral home and have a family that is hard pressed to provide adequate services for the deceased, and they have found an insurance policy, but can't find the latest address of the company, I will look it up for you free of charge -- under certain conditions which are clearly stated before hand."
What kind of limiting conditions might these be?
They are pretty specific, and geared to keeping Earl's hard-earned list in his own hands:
"This service will be used ONLY for settling actual probate cases you are working on, thus making it less likely that any information I do share with you will become public knowledge.
"In the event my information is inaccurate you will promptly let me know.
"You will pass on the information to your clients with a written note that the information was provided to you free of charge from AmericanInsuranceDepot.Com
"You will not keep or reuse any information I provide but ask anew for each case."
Does Earl make ANY money from all his hard work?
"Oh, sure!" Earl quickly responds with a grin. "For any individuals who want to find companies for their own purposes and/or needs they will be asked to pay $10 for the service -- or if that price is a burden to their financial means, they are invited to track the company down by using the FREE resources I provide on http://www.AmericanInsuranceDepot.Com/res.htm"
These are the very same tools Earl used to find these companies in the first place so they must be very good. Everyone is invited to use the resources for free.
One question Earl gets asked a lot is if he can use their name and social security number to find out if ANY insurance company holds a policy on them. Unfortunately, the answer is "NO" at this time. There are simply too many companies and too many ways for them to avoid the questions for a little one-man-show like Earl to launch into a program of that depth.
However, Earl does not leave you stranded even then. "I do provide links to certain services which can go a long ways towards providing that information. This is found on http://www.AmericanInsuranceDepot.Com/help.htm
In checking out that last link I discovered it is a long article of helpful information centering in advice on WHAT TO DO IF YOU DON'T FIND AN INSURANCE POLICY and suspect there was one.
"One thing I do not want applicants to do," Earl cautioned me, "is send their policy numbers to me. People should not give that policy number to anyone except the insurance carrier itself. But time and time again, people ignore all my warnings and send it anyway. Tell everyone to please resolve right now that they will NOT do that!"
Just how much good is this service doing?
Earl gets up to ten phone calls per day, and sometimes ten to 15 written requests. Most of the policies are small, $500 to $2,000. Of course, every penny helps in a crisis. There was one delighted user that called back to let Earl know the insurance company he had found for them had paid off nearly a quarter of a million dollars on their policy! Comments from other users can be found on the web at
http://www.AmericanInsuranceDepot.Com/comments.htm
I like the title of that page... Clicks, Cracks, and Complaints from our Customers. And yes, there are some legitimate complaints on the page.
Earl can be reached by the media for more information, or for phone interviews at 479 243 0153 or you can reach him by email at VisitUs@AmericanInsuranceDepot.Com
the end
This article may be used only in its entirety to be posted on the web for its content value, in newsletters and other public media, and only if the following credits are included...
Lin Stone is an author, writer and photographer living in Mena Arkansas among the gentle mountains known as Ouachita. His articles and essays are syndicated by talewins to be published automatically on other web sites. He writes about adventures for Gates of Go, and he writes about the peaceable things of this world for Share Your State. In his spare time Lin writes copy for American Insurance Depot. You can have immediate, and free, reading of many more pieces when you send your little surfer scooting to Lin's home page at http://www.talewins.com/StoneSoup.htm where he keeps stirring up more good things for the soul.
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