How Do I Write a Letter of Instruction to Pacific Guardian Life?

Send it to Pacific Guardian Life's estate/claims department: Pacific Guardian Life, Attn: Client Relations Department, 1440 Kapiolani Blvd., Suite 1700, Honolulu, HI 96814. You can reach the department at (800) 432-3306.

Pacific Guardian Life lists these among its required documents: Certified (original) copy of the death certificate; Completed claim form from the claims packet (individual) or the Group Life Claim Form (group); Completed IRS Form W-9 from each beneficiary; Government-issued ID for the beneficiary. The prepared letter includes an enclosure checklist drawn from Pacific Guardian Life's recorded requirements.

Pacific Guardian Life states that once all claim requirements are received from EACH beneficiary, death claims are processed as quickly as possible, usually within three working days. The clock therefore runs on the slowest beneficiary: one missing W-9 holds the whole claim. Group claims add the employer's turnaround, since the employer completes its section of the Group Life Claim Form first.

Pacific Guardian Life provides its own letter-of-instruction form. We complete that official form with your information; you print, sign, and send it.

It depends on the capacity you are acting in. An executor or administrator encloses Letters Testamentary (when there is a will) or Letters of Administration (when there is not); a successor trustee encloses a certificate of trust; a successor under a small estate encloses that state’s small estate affidavit. The prepared letter lists the proof-of-authority document for your role alongside the institution’s required documents.

A letter of instruction is the written request an institution asks for when settling a deceased customer’s account. It identifies the decedent and the account, states the capacity you are acting in, and tells the institution what to do with the account.