What to do when a Bankers Life account holder dies

Bankers Life does not offer online beneficiary changes. Complete Section B of the Life and Annuity Policy Information Form (form 20-100, available at my.bankerslife.com/Get-a-Form or from your Bankers Life agent) with the full legal trust name and the trust EIN. The form gives one combined "SSN / TIN" field, so the trust's EIN goes there; it has no separate field for the trust date, and Bankers Life's own Beneficiary guide asks you to "include the full name of the trust, along with the date it was established or last modified," so write that date beside the name. The form instructions require Sections A and B to be completed on every submission, so confirm the ownership information too; if you name more than four beneficiaries, attach a separate sheet; and if percentages are left blank, the proceeds are divided equally. Sign Section F -- without the current policy owner's signature there, no change is made. Mail the form to PO Box 1938, Carmel, IN 46082-1938, or fax it to 312-324-5060. That is the POLICY SERVICE box; PO Box 1937 (fax 312-396-6629) is the claims box. Policies underwritten by Bankers Conseco Life Insurance Company use that company's own NY-only version of the form, and health policies use the separate Health Policy Information Form.

A trust can OWN a Bankers Life life insurance policy or a non-qualified annuity (one bought with after-tax dollars, not held inside an IRA or employer plan) -- the ownership change is Section A of the Life and Annuity Policy Information Form. A qualified annuity held inside an IRA cannot be retitled to a trust, though a trust can be named as its beneficiary. Medicare supplement, long-term care, critical illness, and hospital indemnity policies can be neither owned by a trust nor left to one: they pay benefits to the insured during their lifetime and carry no transferable death benefit, so coverage simply ends at death. Note that a Bankers Life annuity claimed by a trust files the Annuity Death Benefit Claim Form and identifies itself by EIN, not by a Social Security number -- and the annuity form asks for only three pages of the trust (the first page, the page naming the trustee or successor trustee, and the signature page), where a life claim asks for a copy of the trust and any amendments.

By mail or fax, not online -- Bankers Life states that "claim upload capabilities are currently only available for long-term care and short-term care insurance claims. For all other claim submissions, please follow the instructions on the claim form." Download the form that matches the product from my.bankerslife.com/Get-a-Form: the Life Insurance Claim Form (BLC-002) for life insurance, the Annuity Death Benefit Claim Form (BLC-AA114BN) for an annuity, or the Supplemental (Annuitized) Contract version (BLC-AA114SC) for a contract already annuitized; New York policies use the Bankers Conseco Life Insurance Company version. Send it with a certified death certificate to Bankers Life and Casualty Company, Life Claims Department, P.O. Box 1937, Carmel, IN 46082-1937, or fax 312-396-6629. Report the death first on the Life and Annuity Claims line, 800-621-3724 -- not 800-773-4760, which the contact page lists under health-policy claim inquiries. Bankers Life publishes a timeline (form 197576): the claim is assigned to a claims associate within 1-2 weeks, and a determination follows within 1-2 weeks of receiving everything requested, with both figures described as estimates that vary with documentation and state rules. One trap for out-of-state estates: the certified death certificate must list a CAUSE AND MANNER of death, which Bankers Life waives only for a decedent who lived in the city of New York, so a short-form certificate will not do.

By default, into a BenefitNOW Account. Section C of the Life Insurance Claim Form (BLC-002) states the BenefitNOW Account is Bankers Life's "primary method of paying insurance proceeds over $5,000.00" -- an interest-bearing draft account the beneficiary accesses by writing drafts, rather than a lump-sum check. A beneficiary who wants the money differently must affirmatively select Single Check Payment, Proceeds on Deposit, or Other on the claim form. BenefitNOW is not available in all states or with some products; if the account cannot be established, a single check is issued instead. This matters when the claimant is a trust or an estate, since an executor or trustee usually wants the proceeds in the estate or trust account rather than a draft account in their own name.

The deceased beneficiary's own ESTATE does -- not the contingent beneficiary, and not the surviving co-primary. Bankers Life publishes this rule with worked examples in its Deceased Beneficiary Scenarios sheet (form 197577) on my.bankerslife.com/Get-a-Form. If a primary beneficiary dies BEFORE the insured, their share passes to the surviving primary beneficiaries, or to the contingent beneficiary if no primary survives. But if the primary beneficiary dies AFTER the insured, the sheet's example is explicit: 50% goes to the surviving co-primary and "50% would go to the Estate of Joe Smith," and where there was a single primary and a contingent, "100% of the proceeds ... would go to the Estate of Sam Crew. Paul would not receive any proceeds." For an executor this can force an estate to be opened for someone whose affairs otherwise looked settled, and the claim then needs that estate's appointment papers, or -- where no estate will be opened -- a small estate affidavit or affidavit of heirship the claimant obtains from an attorney or the local probate court clerk. A copy of the deceased beneficiary's own death certificate goes in with the claim either way.