Life insurance is a contract to which it is possible to subscribe in order to save money throughout one’s life, and to be able to benefit from it, for example, in addition to retirement. It is not, originally, an investment from which the designated persons benefit in the event of the subscriber’s death. However, in the event of death before the end of the contract, the money is actually paid to one or more beneficiaries. So how do you know if you are the beneficiary of a contract of this type?
Summary
The life insurance contract: savings that cannot be lost
Life insurance is therefore a savings contract which, once concluded, allows the subscriber to benefit from a supplementary pension. You can claim this type of insurance in any insurance agency that offers it, or you can go to an insurance comparator website like LeComparateurAssurance. The latter will allow you very quickly to find a contract that suits your needs. If when the contract reaches its conclusion, the subscriber is deceased, then it is one or more beneficiaries, designated during the subscription, who obtain the resulting sum.
Unfortunately, there is no way to quickly and easily verify whether you are the beneficiary of a loved one, dead or alive. It will be necessary to go through a personal request to the civil status service of a municipality.
Get life insurance: how to do ?
Since there is no moral obligation to tell a loved one that they are a beneficiary of our life insurance, it is possible that you are from someone without knowing it. Insurance companies are obliged, since July 2013, to carry out a search in order to find the beneficiary or beneficiaries of a life insurance contract. However, some terms may not be clear (my wife for a divorcee, an unnamed friend, etc.), and in this case, the insurance company must leave this money aside until the beneficiary claims it. .
If you think that someone in your entourage (family, friend) has designated you as the beneficiary of their life insurance, you will need to request a copy of the latter’s death certificate from the civil status service of the municipality of the place of death or of his last residence. If it contains the mention of your beneficiary status, you can send it by letter to the Association for the management of information on risk in insurance, or AGIRA.
Another solution is to appoint a notary who will have access to the FICOVIE file which lists all life insurance contracts in France, to find mention of your first and last name.
A new free service for researching life insurance
A bank account or life insurance can be designated as inactive when no transaction has been made, and all contact with the subscriber has been interrupted for a certain period. In this case, the funds are transferred to Caisse des Dépôts. In January 2017, it opened a free online service, Ciclade, which allows funds from inactive bank and insurance accounts to be traced. If you think you are a beneficiary of a fund that has long been left hanging, you can search for your name on Ciclade.
Buy life insurance: how to do ?
First of all, know that there are two benefits to taking out such insurance:
- Tax advantage, since the savings placed in this type of contract are exempt from taxes from the 8e year after placement
- Possibility of designating a beneficiary who is not the natural heirs in the event of premature death.
If you ever want to take out this insurance, here is how to do it.
First of all, you can use an insurance comparator site to find the agency that offers a contract that meets your needs. Then, you will have to immediately pay the first contribution of your insurance, and designate your beneficiary or beneficiaries. Contribution payments are variable: you can create capital all at once, or opt for periodic premiums on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. As for the designation of beneficiaries, this can be left by default, which means that in the event of premature death, it will revert to your natural heirs, or you can specify their surnames and first names.
