Re: Death communications

Andrew and others --

A coworker is the executrix for her aunt's estate; the aunt passed away this past week, so I forwarded your question to her. In her situation, she is the one initiating communications with the companies rather than the other way around. In just five days' experience, however, she has a wish list for me to share:

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First, it’s up to the executor/beneficiary to contact the bank/mortgage company/investment firm/etc. to let them know that the original policy owner has died. The institution then provides a list of things they need from the executor/beneficiary in order to close/transfer/reinvest the account – usually a copy of the will/trust and a copy of the death certificate.
 
What these sites need to do is have a page on their site that contains this list. They should also provide a form that the executor/beneficiary can fill out that will provide information (account number, executor/beneficiary name and address and email and phone, original policy owner name and address, close/transfer/reinvest/, reason, etc). The executor/beneficiary can submit it electronically. They can also print it out to send with their copy of the will/trust and death certificate. This will give the institution a heads-up.
 
And they need to include the address of where to send  stuff and a phone number in case assistance is required.
 
The institution should also briefly detail exactly how the process works, whether it’s for closing, transferring or reinvesting the account – the executor/beneficiary will want to see how simple things are, step-by-step, so they don’t freak out. Timelines are good, if possible. And, if they want, I think an institution can talk about how they’d be able to help the executor/beneficiary reinvest the account – nothing wrong with selling your services behind a carefully painted mask of sympathy. <shrugs>

*****

Hope this is useful.

Cheers,
Cinnamon Melchor





----- Original Message ----
From: Andrew Boag <[email protected]>

>One area that is especially interesting is how best to communicate with
>customers in the context where the policy owner has recently died, and the
>company needs to communicate sympathetically, yet efficiently, to ensure
>that the policy is closed, reinvested, paid out, or whatever.


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