What to do when a Integrity Life account holder dies
Contact Integrity Life's Client Services (beneficiary designations, ownership/trust changes) — 6-step process, 7 required documents, and integrity does not publish a claim service-level commitment. valuation is tied to processing, not to the date of death: new momentum and multivantage pay the account value as of the day the death claim is processed, and spda series ii values the benefit at the time proof of death is received — so returning a certified death certificate promptly is what fixes the amount.
Integrity Life
Subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group
westernsouthern.com/distributors/about/integrity-companies→
Client Services (Annuity Information)
Integrity Life Insurance Company, Attn: Client Services, PO Box 5720, Cincinnati, OH 45201-5720
Client Services (beneficiary designations, ownership/trust changes)
Integrity Life Insurance Company, Attn: Client Services, PO Box 5720, Cincinnati, OH 45201-5720
Client Services — Annuity Claims
Integrity Life Insurance Company, Attn: Client Services, PO Box 5720, Cincinnati, OH 45201-5720
Filing a death claim on a Integrity Life policy begins with notifying the Client Services — Annuity Claims at 800-325-8583. Life insurance claims are separate from probate—proceeds transfer directly to named beneficiaries regardless of whether the estate goes through court. The timeline and documentation requirements depend on the policy type and cause of death.
Integrity Life offers an online claims portal that makes the initial filing process more straightforward. Survivors can also initiate claims by phone or by mailing documentation directly.
Death claim process
The death claim process at Integrity Life works as follows:
Filing a claim
- Call 800-325-8583, or email service@integritycompanies.com (National Integrity / New York contracts: 800-433-1778)
- Give the deceased person's name, date of death, and contract number if you have it
- Say whether the deceased was the ANNUITANT or the OWNER — Integrity contracts key off different deaths: New Momentum and SPDA Series II pay on the annuitant's death, while MultiVantage pays on the owner's death during the deferral period
- Certified copy of the death certificate — SPDA Series II pays the account value calculated at the time PROOF of the annuitant's death is received, so the certificate date drives the valuation, not the date of death
- Government-issued photo ID for each claiming beneficiary
- If a trust is the beneficiary: the trust pages identifying the trust, its trustees, and the signature page (Integrity does not read or rely on the trust's terms and is discharged once it pays the trustee)
- If the contract is payable to the estate or the owner's beneficiary is unclear: Letters of Administration or Letters Testamentary from the probate court
- The owner may have elected a Full Restriction on the beneficiary designation form, forcing the entire benefit into a life annuity, a life annuity with 10 or 20 years guaranteed, or a designated period of 8 to 20 years
- A Partial Restriction caps how much you may take as a lump sum, with the remainder applied to the elected annuity option
- A surviving SPOUSE beneficiary may have the right to re-register the contract as owner regardless of the payout restriction the deceased elected
- To annuitize, submit the Election of Annuitization form (IL-00-1943)
- Inherited (Stretch) IRA or Inherited (Stretch) Roth IRA — available only to Eligible Designated Beneficiaries: a surviving spouse, a beneficiary not more than 10 years younger than the decedent, a disabled or chronically ill beneficiary, or a minor child of the decedent (a minor child is an EDB but is currently not supported for new business at Integrity)
- Non-Qualified Extended (nonqualified stretch) — available only on AnnuiQuest, SPDA Series II, IncomeSource, Indextra, and JourneyMark contracts, and the election must be made within 60 days of the benefit becoming payable to you
- IncomeSource Select is excluded from the Inherited (Stretch) IRA election entirely
- A Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit (GLWB) rider cannot be carried into an Inherited (Stretch) IRA or Non-Qualified Extended contract
- Regular mail: Integrity Life Insurance Company, PO Box 5720, Cincinnati, OH 45201-5720. Express mail: Attn: Annuity Operations, 400 Broadway, Cincinnati, OH 45202-3341
Required Documents
- Certified copy of the death certificate
- Completed Integrity death claim forms (issued by Client Services on notification)
- Government-issued photo ID for each claiming beneficiary
- Trust name page, trustee/successor-trustee page, and signature page (if a trust is beneficiary)
- Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration (if proceeds are payable to the estate)
- Beneficiary Required Distribution Election Form IL-77-31045 (only if electing an Inherited Stretch IRA or Non-Qualified Extended payout)
- Election of Annuitization IL-00-1943 (only if electing an income option)
What to know at this institution
Two Integrity-specific traps for beneficiaries. First, which death triggers the benefit varies by product: New Momentum pays on the ANNUITANT's death during the deferral period, MultiVantage pays on the OWNER's death, and SPDA Series II pays on receipt of proof of the annuitant's death. Where the owner and annuitant are different people, the contract may also have a separate "owner's beneficiary" who takes control of the contract rather than receiving a death benefit. Second, IncomeSource is an immediate annuity with no cash value and no death benefit — a survivor receives only whatever remaining certain payouts the elected payout option provides, and a Deceased Annuitant Commutation rider (if elected at issue) is what allows those remaining certain payouts to be cashed out in a lump sum. A trust named as beneficiary must take the entire death benefit within five years of the annuitant's date of death (IRC 72(s)); it cannot stretch over a trust beneficiary's life expectancy. New York contracts are serviced by National Integrity Life at 800-433-1778 from the same Cincinnati service center.
Prepare your letter of instruction to Integrity Life
Integrity Life provides its own letter-of-instruction form. Answer a few questions and we complete that official form for you to print and sign.
Build your letter of instructionHow long the process takes at Integrity Life: Integrity does not publish a claim service-level commitment. Valuation is tied to processing, not to the date of death: New Momentum and MultiVantage pay the account value as of the day the death claim is processed, and SPDA Series II values the benefit at the time proof of death is received — so returning a certified death certificate promptly is what fixes the amount. The most common reason for delays is missing or incomplete documentation, so submitting everything upfront is the best way to keep things moving.
Integrity Life requires several documents to process a claim, including Certified copy of the death certificate, Completed Integrity death claim forms (issued by Client Services on notification), and Government-issued photo ID for each claiming beneficiary, and additional documentation depending on the account type. Certified copies are typically needed—photocopies are generally not accepted for death certificates or court documents.
Frequently asked questions
No, and this is the single most common way an Integrity annuity ends up not doing what the owner intended. The annuitant's beneficiary receives the death benefit when the ANNUITANT dies, and is designated on the Annuitant Beneficiary Designation Form (IL-61-0002). The owner's beneficiary takes control of the contract when the OWNER dies, and is designated in Section 4 of the Non-Financial Service Request (IL-00-3185). Where you are both the owner and the annuitant, one designation effectively covers you. But if you own a contract on someone else's life — a common arrangement when a parent buys a contract naming a child as annuitant — updating one designation does not update the other. The Non-Financial Service Request carries both blocks, so you can fix both in a single filing.
No. Integrity's Ownership Change Request states that any trust that owns an Integrity or National Integrity nonqualified annuity must ALSO be named as the annuity beneficiary of that contract. So you cannot make the trust the owner while leaving individuals as beneficiaries — the trust has to sit in both seats. That matters, because a trust is a non-natural-person beneficiary: the entire death benefit must be paid out within five years of the annuitant's death (IRC 72(s)), with no lifetime stretch for the people behind the trust. The usual alternative is to leave the contract in your own name and name the trust only as a contingent beneficiary, or to name individuals directly.
Integrity wants three pages, not the whole trust. The Ownership Change Request (IL-77-0034) says in bold: "If new owner is a trust, please DO NOT send us the entire trust document." Send the page naming the trust, the page listing the trustees and successor trustees, and the signature page — plus the Entity Owner Certificate form and the trust's IRS Tax ID number (the EIN is not needed if the trust is revocable or a grantor-type trust). On tax: a transfer to a grantor trust, revocable or irrevocable, is not a transfer for income, estate, or gift tax purposes, so no gain is recognized. A transfer to a NON-grantor irrevocable trust is a real change of ownership, and IRC 72(e)(4)(C) forces recognition of every dollar of gain in the contract at the moment of transfer. Integrity also disclaims any duty to read your trust: it is not obligated to inquire into the trust's terms and is fully discharged once it pays the trustee.
Sometimes — Integrity gates it tightly. The Beneficiary Required Distribution Election Form (IL-77-31045) offers three elections: Inherited (Stretch) IRA, Inherited (Stretch) Roth IRA, and Non-Qualified Extended. The Inherited (Stretch) IRA options are only open to Eligible Designated Beneficiaries — a surviving spouse, someone not more than 10 years younger than the decedent, a disabled or chronically ill beneficiary, or a minor child (and Integrity notes a minor child, though an EDB, is currently not supported for new business). The Non-Qualified Extended option is only available on AnnuiQuest, SPDA Series II, IncomeSource, Indextra, and JourneyMark contracts, and the election must be made within 60 days of the benefit becoming payable to you. IncomeSource Select is excluded from the stretch election entirely, and a Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit rider cannot be carried into an inherited stretch contract. Separately, the deceased owner may have restricted your choice on the beneficiary form — a Full Restriction forces the whole benefit into a life annuity or a period-certain option, though a surviving spouse may still have the right to re-register the contract regardless.
Integrity Life's Client Services — Annuity Claims can be reached by phone at 800-325-8583, email at service@integritycompanies.com, and fax at 888-220-2677 for questions throughout the claims process.
If the deceased held multiple Integrity Life policies, each may require a separate claim or have different documentation requirements. The Client Services — Annuity Claims can confirm which accounts require individual attention and which can be processed together.
Sources
Data sourced from Integrity Life primary sources (15 pages reviewed). How we research.
Integrity Life
Subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group
westernsouthern.com/distributors/about/integrity-companies→Client Services (Annuity Information)
Integrity Life Insurance Company, Attn: Client Services, PO Box 5720, Cincinnati, OH 45201-5720
Client Services (beneficiary designations, ownership/trust changes)
Integrity Life Insurance Company, Attn: Client Services, PO Box 5720, Cincinnati, OH 45201-5720
Client Services — Annuity Claims
Integrity Life Insurance Company, Attn: Client Services, PO Box 5720, Cincinnati, OH 45201-5720
Estate planning articles
Learn how to protect your Integrity Life accounts and other assets with trusts, beneficiary designations, and estate planning documents.
Is this your situation?
Get a complete guide for your specific circumstances.
More tools for handling this estate
Calculators and checklists for executors and trustees.
How Much Does Probate Cost?
Estimate attorney fees, executor fees, court costs, and timeline for probating an estate in your state. See if the estate qualifies for simplified probate procedures.
How Much Can an Executor Charge?
Calculate how much an executor (personal representative) can charge for administering an estate. See if your state has statutory fees or uses reasonable compensation.
Who Inherits Without a Will?
Find out who inherits your estate and how much they get if you die without a will. Based on your state's intestate succession laws.
What's Fair Trustee Compensation?
Find out what's fair compensation for serving as trustee. Compare family, professional, and corporate trustee rates based on your situation.
How Much Are Estate & Inheritance Taxes?
Calculate federal estate tax, state estate tax (12 states + DC), and inheritance tax (5 states) for an estate or trust.
How Many Death Certificates Do I Need?
Calculate how many certified death certificates you need based on the assets and accounts you need to close. See state-specific ordering information.
