How Do I Write a Letter of Instruction to Reliance Standard?

Send it to Reliance Standard's estate/claims department: Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company, 1700 Market Street, Suite 1200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, Attention: Premium Services. You can reach the department at 1-800-351-7500.

Reliance Standard lists these among its required documents: A completed claim form for EACH beneficiary (group death-claim form from the employer, or the Annuity Claims Packet EF-3500); Original certified death certificate showing cause and manner of death; Certificate number (group) or annuity contract number; Trust Certification (EF-2989) if a trust is the beneficiary, completed by the trustee. The prepared letter includes an enclosure checklist drawn from Reliance Standard's recorded requirements.

On the group track, a Reliance Standard Claims Examiner typically makes contact within 48 hours of an online claim submission; payment follows once the claim form for each beneficiary and the certified death certificate are in hand. Annuity claims are paid on the contract value as of the date of death. Reliance Standard warns in the EF-3500 packet that if it does not receive the required claim information within a reasonable time -- generally about two months -- it may be required to escheat the death benefit to the state where the decedent resided, so an unclaimed annuity does not simply sit and wait.

Reliance Standard 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.