Dormant policies for over 1 billion euros, how to find out if you are among the beneficiaries

Ivass, the insurance supervisory authority, has communicated the updated situation on dormant policies.
It happens much more often than you think, in fact, that insurance policies are not collected, even though they are payable.
It happens for the most disparate reasons, from unavailability to the death of the insured, for example if the heirs do not know about the insurance or forget about it.
In June 2023 there were 110,000 policies to be collected for an amount of 5 billion euros, to date 1 billion is still waiting, ready and payable.
The figure could be even higher, given that as many as 84,000 policies with a total value of 1.5 billion euros have yet to be verified and some of these could be collectible.
There remain 15,000 policies in suspension, given that they are not collected due to some hitch (the insurance does not trace the beneficiaries or the documents to complete the procedure are missing).
Well, as strange as it may seem, there is really a lot of "forgotten" money and in fact this phenomenon is already improving compared to ten years ago.
There are thousands of beneficiaries who could collect the policy taken out personally or by a deceased person, waiting to be identified.
However, there is a way to speed up the procedure by carrying out the search directly.
How to find out if you are among the beneficiaries Finding out if you are among the beneficiaries of a payable insurance policy is actually not as difficult as it would seem, evidently the main problem is that many do not know of the existence of the policy or have forgotten about it, for various reasons.
However, the method is very simple and was recommended directly by Ivass.
In particular, it is necessary to contact the National Association of Insurance Companies (Ania).
The search portal is electronic and allows you to verify the existence of life insurance policies in which the deceased person was insured, provided you are among the beneficiaries.
You must therefore be very precise when indicating your personal data and send as many requests as there are potential beneficiaries, since the information will only be granted to the beneficiaries identified by the deceased or entitled to them by law.
read also Life insurance policy without beneficiary, who collects it? Consequently, the failure to find life insurance policies does not automatically mean that the deceased had no insurance policies, but undoubtedly the person who submitted the request is not a beneficiary.
To use the portal it is necessary to authenticate to Ania services or, otherwise, send an email toformazioneservizi@ania.it specifying "Search for life insurance policies" as the subject.
In case of a positive match, the company will be informed to start the collection process.
Ivass recommends checking the conditions of the policy to avoid the company requesting additional documents that are not foreseen.
If you know the insurance company to which the deceased was entrusted, or even just hypothesize, you can send a direct request using the fillable form provided by Ivass and attached below.
What if the policy has expired? If 10 years have passed since the life insurance policy was due but no one has shown interest in it, part of the credit is lost, but there is still some hope.
This was pointed out by Marco Festelli, president of Confconsumatori, who specified the obligation of insurance companies to notify savers when the money flows into the fund intended for dormant policies, publishing notices for collection on a periodic basis.
Consap publishes the announcement relating to the Dormant Policy Fund on a quarterly basis, we therefore invite you to check and possibly join to recover at least part of the investment (depends above all on the capacity of the fund and the number of applicants).
Policies that expire naturally Not only life policies, but also savings plans with natural expiration are often forgotten, especially if they are quite long and in the meantime the owner has moved, had health problems or other complications.
However, the beneficiary who is still alive can simply go to the insurance company he/she turned to to obtain information about it or, if 10 years have passed in the meantime, check the notices for the Dormant Policy Fund.
In the event of difficulties of any kind, it is advisable to contact Ivass (on the toll-free number 800 486661) to receive assistance and find out how to proceed with any debt collection.
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