What to do when a Everlake Life account holder dies

Yes. Everlake life insurance policy ownership can be transferred to an ILIT. Contact Everlake at 1-844-953-0347 (life insurance) or 1-833-879-0774 (variable universal life) to request the required ownership transfer forms. The three-year lookback rule under IRC Section 2035 applies: if the insured dies within three years of the ownership transfer, the death benefit may be included in the taxable estate for federal estate tax purposes.

Beneficiaries can file a claim online through the Everlake Customer Portal at https://customer.everlakelife.com/guest/claims/file-a-claim or by calling 1-844-953-0347 (life), 1-844-953-2815 (general annuities), or 1-833-879-0774 (VUL or Helmsman/Horizon/RightFit annuities). You will need the deceased's policy or contract number, date of death, and a certified death certificate. Everlake / TAG mails a claim packet, which the beneficiary completes and returns to Everlake Life Claims, P.O. Box 83328, Lincoln, NE 68501 (or fax 1-833-636-0034 for life/general annuity).

The Everlake Advantage Account is a retained-asset settlement account: rather than mailing a lump-sum check, Everlake can settle an approved life insurance death benefit into an interest-bearing account opened in the beneficiary's name. It is serviced by The Northern Trust Company, not by TAG -- reach it at 1-855-539-6487, online at https://www20310.ntrs.com/raw/public/als/login, or by mail at Everlake Advantage Account, c/o The Northern Trust Company, P.O. Box 92987, Chicago, IL 60675-2987. You can withdraw the entire balance at any time. The estate planning consequence is easy to miss: money sitting in an Advantage Account is your own asset, and the account is not a policy with a beneficiary designation of its own. If you die with a balance still in it, that balance passes through your estate and can be subject to probate. If you intend to hold the money rather than spend it, move it into an account that carries its own beneficiary or POD designation, or into your revocable trust.

No. Everlake routes these to entirely separate teams, and sending the claim to the main life and annuity service center will delay it. Structured settlement claims go to Everlake Structured Settlement Claims, P.O. Box 81007, Lincoln, NE 68501, phone 1-833-879-0775, fax 1-833-636-0034. Pension buyout (annuity buyout) claims go to Everlake Pension Buyout Claims at the same P.O. Box 81007 address and the same 1-833-879-0775 line. Long-term care is administered from a different state entirely: Everlake Life Insurance Company, Long Term Care Administrative Office, PO Box 4243, Woodland Hills, CA 91365-4243, phone 1-888-505-8744, fax 1-818-887-4595. Note that long-term care is a reimbursement policy paid during the insured's life, not a death benefit, so a death is reported there to close the policy and stop premium billing rather than to collect a payout. For structured settlements and pension buyouts, what survives the death is fixed by the settlement agreement or the payment form the retiree elected -- guaranteed payments continue to the named beneficiary, while life-contingent payments end at death.