For several years now, there has been a public registry available that collects information on accident and life insurance, where insurance companies “dump” this information, allowing interested parties, in a simple way, to check whether the deceased person had a policy in force.
Why was this Registry created?
It may seem surprising, but:
In many cases, accident and life insurance policies remain uncollected by their beneficiaries.
How can this be? Fundamentally, because nowadays, many bank cards have small accident or life insurance policies associated with them, for example.
This Register of Insurance Contracts for death coverage was created thanks to Law 20/2005, with its regulatory development in 2007, by means of RD 398/2007. The reason for its creation: that insurance companies enjoyed an enormous benefit by having life insurance policies and, nevertheless, not having to pay the insured capital, since no one claimed those amounts.
How does the Registry work?
The same is available for consultation:
- In life (by means of informative notes), or
- After the death of the insured: by filling out form 790.
We will discuss the latter case. There are several deadlines that affect your application:
- 15 working days must elapse after the death (by providing death certificate and completed application form)
- The Registry has 7 days to respond to the request for information.
- 5 years the information remains in the Register, after the death of the insured person.
What information does the Registry provide?
Certifies the number of life and/or accident policies that the deceased had in force at the time of death, as well as the company that guaranteed those amounts.
In this way, the interested party can contact the company and request the payment of the amounts to the insurance beneficiaries.
With respect to the beneficiaries, it is important to point out that, depending on the person who consults the Registry, it will provide one type of information or another. That is:
- if the applicant is a beneficiary, it will tell you which life insurance policies he/she is a beneficiary of
- if you are not a beneficiary, it will only show you the life insurance policies in force, but will not inform you who the beneficiaries are.
By what means can this information be requested?
These are the means that can be used
- in person (at the Territorial Offices of the Ministry of Justice or at the Civil Registries),
- on the web: digital certificate required
- by regular mail.
The truth is that the creation of the Register has been a very positive measure, since up to 30% of the applications have a favorable outcome. These are insurances that, in many cases, would not have been charged if this possibility had not existed. The only drawback is that it has a cost: almost 4 euros for requesting the information.
If you want us to offer this type of advice in all your insurances, do not hesitate to contact us. At PIB Group Iberia your life insurance at the best price.