By taking out life insurance, you can choose one or more beneficiaries, who will receive capital on the death of the insured. How do you know if one of your relatives has designated you as the beneficiary of their life insurance? What steps should take so that the capital paid to you?
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The Recipient of Life Coverage: Definition And Results:
The recipient of a disaster protection strategy is the individual who will get the capital on the demise of the guaranteed. The life insurance policyholder can choose his beneficiaries:
- whether or not they are related to him;
- whatever their age;
- whether it is a natural or legal person (for example an association).
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The number of beneficiaries, as well as the distribution of capital among them, is also at the discretion of the life insurance underwriter. But, from the moment when the beneficiaries have accepted their status, by an amendment to the life insurance contract, for example, the insured can no longer change the beneficiary clause without their agreement.
Please note: when choosing the beneficiaries and the distribution of the death benefit between them, be careful not to harm your heirs. If you infringe on their hereditary reserve (that is to say, the irreducible fraction accruing to your heirs), they could then contest the beneficiary clause.
Obligation to find beneficiaries of life insurance:
The subscriber of a life insurance leads is not required to inform the beneficiaries that he has appointed them to inherit his capital in the event of death. When the subscriber dies, insurance companies must seek out the beneficiary (ies) of his contract, both with the deceased’s notary, but also with the tax authorities. Life insurance companies must then inform the beneficiaries as possible of the arrangements to make to receive the capital due to them following the death of their loved one.
If the insurance company does not find a beneficiary, we say that the contract is dormant:
- Â For 10 years, the funds kept the insurer.
-  Beyond that, they are transferred to the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations.
- Â If at the end of 30 years, no one has come forward as the beneficiary of the contract, its capital becomes the property of the State.
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To fight against this growing problem, the law has strengthened in recent years around the obligation of insurers, but also notaries, to find life insurance beneficiaries (articles L132-9-2 and L132-9-3 of the Insurance Code). At the end of 2016, dormant life insurance contracts represented 843 million euros.
How to claim the benefit of life insurance?
If you think you are the beneficiary of life insurance, you can check it with Agira (Association for the Management of Information on Risk in Insurance), which is in particular in charge of finding the beneficiaries of insurance contracts. unclaimed life.
Concretely :
- You can contact the Agira via an online form, or by mail giving them your contact details, the names, first names, date of birth, and death of people of whom you may think to be the beneficiary. Remember to attach a copy of their death certificate.
- The Agira then has 15 days to process your file and question insurance companies, mutual funds, provident organizations, etc.
- The establishments contacted by Agira have one month to examine this request and to contact the beneficiary if they find one.
Good to know: for contracts with a capital greater than € 7,500, you can also directly question the notary of the estate of the deceased. Since January 1, 2016, notaries have access to the FICOVIE file, which brings together all life insurance contracts. He will thus be able to answer you to find out whether you are the beneficiary of a possible life insurance contract that has been taken out by a recently deceased relative.
If you have learned that you are the beneficiary of the life insurance contract of a loved one, here are the elements to provide to the insurer to collect the capital due to you:
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a copy of your identity card;
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a copy of your marriage or PACS certificate, if the insured was your spouse;
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possibly an act of notoriety drawn up by a notary.
