Co-Founder, Coastal Financial Partners Group, California
Assuming the monies from life insurance are the death proceeds, it will generally take a week or two from the time a death certificate and claim form have been received by the life insurer.
If death occurred in the first two policy years, the policy is within the contestability period. In these cases, the insurer investigates the claim more thoroughly so it might take a little longer.
In order to process the claim on a life insurance policy, you need to request claim forms from your agent or life insurance company, fill them out, and return them with a certified death certificate. Getting the death certificate (the funeral home will often handle this for you) can take a couple of weeks. Once all that is submitted to the insurance company, the death benefit is usually paid fairly quickly.
There is a process to receiving a death claim on one's life insurance. You will need to fill out the life insurance company's claim form. Usually you can either call the company, your agent or most company's now have a downloadable form on their website. You will need a certified copy of the death certificate. Usually either a hospital or funeral home will initiate this process for you. Depending on where you live, this process is one to three weeks. Once you have these documents ready and delivered to the life insurance carrier, you can expect one to two weeks to process and cut the check. However, if the insured dies within the first two years, known as the contestability period, it can trigger an investigation into cause of death. If this occurs, the process can be months and can even denied which means the insurance company, by contract, only has to refund paid premiums plus interest.
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If death occurred in the first two policy years, the policy is within the contestability period. In these cases, the insurer investigates the claim more thoroughly so it might take a little longer.