It is not completely diffused in society, but there is a Registration of death coverage insurance contracts, dependent on the Ministry of Justice, where we can find out if a deceased person had contracted a life insurance or accident insurance contract in the event of death. The Registry has been active since 2007, and since then, more than 700.000 people have been able to confirm that they had some right to collect insurance from a deceased relative. Up to a third of the queries made during these 7 years have had positive results.
This Registration it is public, in order to provide information to potential beneficiaries who have no other way of documenting the coverage that relatives or people close to them could have contracted. The registry provides the insurance company with which the life insurance or accident insurance coverage was contracted. It is allowed to check if you are listed as a beneficiary in order to claim from the insurer the benefits that may derive from the contract.
The insurance contracts that appear in the Official register are:
- Life insurances, with death cover
- Accident insurance, which include the contingency of the death of the insured, and may be individual or collective policies.
The process is simple, Any person who considers that they may be a beneficiary of life insurance or accident insurance can consult said registry, after a period of 15 business days from the day of death. It is necessary to justify the right to said benefit and complete an application form.
The term in which the data will be available in the Registry will be five years from the date of death. The data related to insurance whose benefits have been paid will be canceled from the Registry as soon as the body in charge of its management is informed of such circumstance by the insurance company.