What to do when a Prudential account holder dies

Prudential Group Insurance asks for a COMPLETE copy of the trust, not the Certificate of Trust that most banks accept, along with the death certificate and the completed Group Life Claim Form. If the ESTATE is the beneficiary instead, it wants a copy of the Letters of Administration (or letters testamentary) appointing the personal representative. If a MINOR is the beneficiary, it requires a court order appointing a guardian of the minor's estate -- and Prudential says this applies even when you are the minor's parent. The claim form also requires a Taxpayer Identification Number for the beneficiary: an SSN for an individual, or the EIN if the claimant is a trust, estate, corporation, partnership, or tax-exempt organization, so an estate or trust claimant needs its EIN before filing.

Only individual policies can be moved. The ILIT must become the OWNER shown on the contract -- naming the trust as beneficiary does not remove the death benefit from the taxable estate. Prudential does not publish its ownership-change form as a public PDF: log in at prudential.com/idex/login, click View Details, open the "I would like to" dropdown, choose Forms Library, click Launch, and select "Request a change of ownership." Annuity ownership changes use the "Request an account change" form under Document center > Account forms. If an existing policy is transferred, the three-year lookback applies: the insured must survive three years from the transfer for the proceeds to stay out of the taxable estate, while a policy the ILIT buys from inception avoids the rule. Employer-sponsored group life, group universal life, and SGLI/VGLI cannot be assigned to an ILIT at all, because the employer or the federal program holds the master contract; for those the trust can only be named as beneficiary.

Yes, but through a separate division that Prudential's commercial representatives cannot see. Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance, Veterans' Group Life Insurance, and Family SGLI are administered by the Office of Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (OSGLI), a division of The Prudential Insurance Company of America, under the supervision of the VA. Death claims go to OSGLI at 1-800-419-1473 (weekdays 8am-5pm ET), by email to osgli.claims@prudential.com, by fax to 1-877-832-4943, or by mail to Office of Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance, PO Box 41618, Philadelphia, PA 19176-9913. The claim form is the VA's Claim for Death Benefits (SGLV 8283), published by the VA at va.gov/life-insurance/options-eligibility/sgli/ and benefits.va.gov/INSURANCE/forms.asp, not by Prudential. Beneficiary designations for these programs are filed through the service branch or the VA.

Check the Fortitude Re line. Prudential's own contact page lists a separate service number for "Fortitude Re contracts" (1-800-879-7012, weekdays 8am-6pm ET) alongside its individual annuities line (1-888-778-2888). Older Prudential annuity contracts moved to Fortitude Re, and the Prudential Annuities Service Center will not have them. Before treating a contract as lost, run the contract number past both numbers. Separately, if the annuity has a "Choose a payout for your beneficiary" election on file, the owner already pre-selected how death proceeds are paid, and the beneficiary cannot re-elect at claim time.