What to do when a MetLife account holder dies

No. An employer-sponsored group life certificate cannot be assigned to an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust, because you do not own an individual policy to transfer — the employer holds the master group contract and you hold a certificate under it. That closes off the usual estate-tax strategy of moving a death benefit outside the taxable estate, and it matters more at MetLife than at most insurers, because group coverage is what MetLife actively sells in the U.S. today. What you CAN do is name a trust as the beneficiary of the group certificate, which is done through your employer's HR team or MyBenefits at mybenefits.metlife.com, not through MetLife's individual-life forms channel. The proceeds are then payable to the trust and distributed under its terms, though they remain part of your taxable estate. The same limit applies to AD&D, Group Universal Life, and Group Variable Universal Life. If an ILIT is the goal, it takes an individually owned policy. Consult a licensed attorney for legal questions about estate inclusion.

Use the Life Insurance Absolute Assignment form (Form 29499). The current owner completes and signs Sections I, II, and III; the new owner — the trustee — signs Section IV, and the inter vivos trust election (Assignment Type C) requires trust certification. Submit it to MetLife, P.O. Box 392, Warwick, RI 02887-0392, by fax to 1-401-827-2771, or by email to INDLiferequests@metlife.com. Three things go wrong. First, the 60-DAY WINDOW: MetLife must RECEIVE the form within 60 days of the date the owner signed it, so a form that sits unmailed is void and must be re-signed. Second, the assignment REVOKES the existing beneficiary designations — the trustee, now the owner, has to file a new beneficiary designation (Form 31163 for a trust or entity), and skipping that step leaves the proceeds to fall to the policy's default takers. Third, IRC 2035 imposes a three-year lookback: if the insured dies within three years of assigning an existing policy to the ILIT, the death benefit is pulled back into the taxable estate anyway. And confirm before you start that MetLife still services the policy at all — if a Brighthouse entity issued it, the assignment goes to Brighthouse (1-800-882-1292). MetLife does not create trusts. Consult a licensed attorney for legal questions.

Call 1-800-638-5000 (Monday-Friday 9am-6pm ET) to report the death and request a claim kit, or download it at metlife.quadientcloud.com/app/eforms/. There are two kits and picking the wrong one restarts the claim: the Individual Beneficiary Claim Kit when a named person is the beneficiary, and the Trust/Entity Claim Kit when an estate, a trust, or a company is — that one asks for the entity name, your role, its establishment date, its tax identification number, and proof that you are authorized to act for it. The death certificate rule turns on $100,000: at $100,000 and under a photocopy is accepted, and over $100,000 MetLife requires a certified copy, which it describes as one carrying a raised or colored seal. Only one death certificate is needed for the whole policy, but EACH beneficiary completes their own claim form and is paid separately. Submit by email to INDlifeclaims@metlife.com, by fax to 1-908-655-9586, online, or by mail to the address printed in the kit. MetLife reviews within 5 business days of receiving complete documentation and responds within 10 business days if it needs more. On approval you choose a MetLife Total Control Account (interest-bearing, no fee, optional debit card access) or a check mailed within 5 business days.

MetLife scales the annuity death-certificate requirement to the contract value, which is unusual and worth knowing before ordering certified copies: no death certificate at all for a contract value of $15,000 or less; a photocopy for $15,000.01 to $300,000; and an original certified copy, sent by mail, for anything over $300,000. The cause of death must appear on the certificate. Annuity claims go to 1-800-638-7732 (Monday-Friday 8:30am-6:30pm ET), requests@metlife.com, or fax 1-877-547-9669; group annuity contracts go to 1-800-560-5001. A trust can be named as beneficiary of a MetLife annuity using the Annuity Beneficiary Change form (metlife.quadientcloud.com/app/eforms/, DOCID ANN-BENE), and a non-qualified contract can be owned by a trust using the annuity ownership change form together with the Trustee-Entity Certification (Form 14988); if the trust needs to qualify as a designated beneficiary for stretch distribution purposes, add the Trust Look-Through Treatment Certification (Form 46429). Spousal consent may be required in community property states. Note that most retail annuities sold before 2017 moved to Brighthouse Financial — check the issuing company on the contract before filing.