Dormant life policies

Dormant life assurance policies are those policies that have not been collected by the beneficiaries and lie dormant at insurance undertakings until they become time-barred. These may be either policies on the death of the insured, of which beneficiaries were not aware, or savings policies which, upon maturity, were not collected for various reasons.

How long do you have to claim the benefits?

The rights arising from life policies are barred after 10 years from the event:
• death of the insured;
• contract maturity.
After that deadline undertakings must assign the relative amounts to the Dormant Accounts Fund set up within CONSAP.

The time limit of 10 years applies to the events occurred after 20 October 2010.

How can you check if a deceased family member had underwritten a life policy?

IVASS suggests two ways:
1) contact the "Search service for life insurance policies" of ANIA ( the National Association of Insurance Undertakings) which allows applicants (for example the spouse of a deceased person) to send insurance undertakings - free of charge - a request for information on the existence of life policies, with the same undertakings, relating to allegedly insured deceased persons.
The search verifies if the name of the applicant is among the names of the beneficiaries of the policy. Therefore, we suggest to make searches for each potential beneficiary. For example: if the deceased family member was the father of two children, it is advisable that both the wife and each of the two children request the search, so as to expand its scope.
2) contact the insurance intermediary, the bank or the insurance undertaking the family member was a customer of, asking for information – ideally in writing - on the existence of the policy. Download a facsimile request. This information can also be requested from the contact points available on the websites of Italian insurance undertakings.

For any further information and assistance you can call IVASS’ Consumer Contact Centre at the free phone number 800486661, from Monday to Friday 8.30 to 14.30

Tips to follow when underwriting a contract to facilitate the collection of benefits by beneficiaries.

When you take out a life policy it is for pension or saving purposes, thinking about your future and that of your loved ones.

To be sure that the beneficiaries receive the amounts due it is advisable to mention them with their own name, without using general indications (such as for example legitimate heirs, spouse, children and the unborn….) and provide the undertaking with all the information (address, telephone number and/or e-mail address) necessary to contact them in case of death of the insured.

If you do not want that the beneficiaries become aware of the existence of the policy in advance, it may be useful to inform a third party who can inform the beneficiaries when the insured event occurs.