Unclaimed benefits and lost beneficiary search

How do we act on a death master file match or a dormant account, locate the beneficiaries, complete their claims, and pay or escheat on the state's clock?

Treat each match as a case with a search, a claim and a deadline. Callvu opens the case from the quarterly death master file match or the dormancy trigger, classifies it (a confirmed death on an in-force policy or annuity, a matured endowment, a dormant account), chases the confirmation of death and the beneficiary's identity and contact through the records the carrier may search and the beneficiary's own link, runs the good-faith search the state act requires with each step recorded, drives the beneficiary's claim through the death claim process once found, routes an exhausted search to the unclaimed property analyst in the Decision Desk, and writes the payment or the escheatment with the due diligence letters to the policy system and the state report inside the dormancy period.

In scopeComplex: multi-party handoffsCallvu moves: chase and verify, decide, write back

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Last updated November 7, 2026.

The problem today

The insured had been dead for six years; the policy was still in force and the beneficiary was two streets away.

Today, without Callvu

A life insurer learns of a death from a claim, or it does not. For years, carriers used the death master file to stop annuity payments but not to find life beneficiaries who had not claimed. The multistate settlements that followed, and the state acts they produced, now require the search: match the in-force book against the death master file, confirm the match, find the beneficiary, and pay or escheat.

State unclaimed life insurance benefits acts (the NAIC Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Model Act #275 as adopted) require a carrier to compare its policies, annuities and retained asset accounts against the death master file at least semi-annually, to confirm a match within a period, to make a good-faith effort to locate the beneficiary and provide the claim forms, and to escheat benefits not claimed under the state's unclaimed property rules after the dormancy period (commonly three years from the date of death or the knowledge of it). Each requirement has a date and a record the state's audit will ask for.

A found beneficiary is a paid claim; an unfound one is an escheatment with a documented search, and both are the carrier's duty.

How it runs

From the requestto the system of record.

A death master file match, a death notice from any source, a matured policy with no claim, or a dormant retained asset account triggers the case. Callvu opens it on the policy or account.

Beneficiary or heir: Is located, verifies identity and completes the claim on a secure screen.
Unclaimed property analyst: Decides exhausted searches and escheatment in the Decision Desk.
State unclaimed property administrator: Receives the report and the funds after due diligence.
Callvu: Classifies, confirms, searches with each step recorded, chases the beneficiary, routes, and writes the payment or the escheatment.

Classify and confirm the match
The trigger is classified (a death master file match by name, date of birth and social security number with its match quality, a notice of death, a maturity, a dormancy) and the death is confirmed within the act's period through the permitted sources (an obituary, a death certificate, a state vital records query); the policy's status, the beneficiary designation and the last contact are prefilled from the policy system.
Chase and verify the beneficiary
The designated beneficiary is contacted at the address and contacts on record and through the search steps the act contemplates (the insured's other policies and accounts, the agent, public records and a locator service), each attempt recorded with its date and result; a located beneficiary verifies identity on a secure screen and the death claim process takes the claim from there, with the claim forms provided as the act requires.
Decide
A search that locates the beneficiary ends in the claim; one that exhausts the steps within the act's period goes to the unclaimed property analyst in the Decision Desk with the search record and only the allowed outcomes: continue the search with a named step, prepare for escheatment with the due diligence letter, or hold with a reason; a beneficiary who is located but does not complete the claim is reminded until the dormancy period's due diligence point.
Write back, report and escheat
A paid claim is written to the policy system through the death claim process; an unclaimed benefit has the due diligence letter sent within the state's window before reporting, the report filed on the state's date with the owner's details, and the funds remitted, all written to the policy system with the search record as the proof of the good-faith effort.

Where it ends: Every match was confirmed and searched with each step on the record, found beneficiaries were paid through the claim process, and unclaimed benefits were reported and remitted on the state's clock with the due diligence proven. The Decision Trace shows the match quality, the search steps and the decisions; the Audit Trace shows every attempt, letter, report and payment with their times.

Runtime enforcement

What is enforcedwhile the work runs.

The regulations preloaded in Callvu Studio and the bank's own policies, applied as steps that run, not lines in a binder. A step that breaks a rule does not run, so a completed run was compliant.

Regulations

State unclaimed life insurance benefits acts (NAIC Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Model Act #275 as adopted in most states): An insurer must perform a comparison of its in-force life policies, annuity contracts and retained asset accounts against the death master file at least semi-annually, using the full file at the first comparison; on a match, within ninety days it must complete a good-faith effort to confirm the death, determine whether benefits are due, locate the beneficiary and provide claim forms and instructions; benefits not claimed are escheated under the unclaimed property law, and the insurer may not charge fees for the search; the commissioner may examine compliance.
Unclaimed property rules (state unclaimed property acts following the 1981, 1995 and 2016 Uniform Unclaimed Property Acts): Life insurance proceeds are presumed abandoned three years after the insurer knows the insured died (or, under the 2016 act, after the death master file match), the holder must send a due diligence notice to the owner's last known address between sixty and one hundred eighty days before filing the report, file the report with the owner's details on the state's annual date and remit the property, with interest and penalties for late reporting and audits by contract auditors.
The multistate regulatory settlement agreements and state insurance department bulletins on death master file use: The settlements set the matching criteria (fuzzy matching on name, date of birth and social security number), the search steps and the documentation expected; the case records the match quality and each step to that standard.

Company policies

Every match is a case with the act's periods on it; nothing waits for a claim to arrive.
Each search step is recorded with its date and result, so the good-faith effort is provable.
A located beneficiary completes the claim through the death claim process on a secure screen; the search never ends in a letter alone.
The policy system is the system of record for the search, the payment and the escheatment.

Controls

Semi-annual death master file comparison with match quality.
Death confirmation within the act's period.
Recorded search steps and beneficiary chases.
Decision Desk for exhausted searches.
Due diligence letter in the state's window.
Report and remittance on the state's date, written to the policy system.

Clocks and deadlines

State unclaimed life insurance benefits acts match handling: The good-faith effort to confirm the death, locate the beneficiary and provide claim forms completed within ninety days of the match.
Unclaimed property rules dormancy and due diligence: Presumed abandoned three years after knowledge of the death; the due diligence notice sixty to one hundred eighty days before the report.
State report: Filed and remitted on the state's annual date.

Documents and checks

The match with its quality and the death confirmation
The beneficiary designation and the search steps with results
The claim through the death claim process, or the exhausted search decision
The due diligence letter and the state report
The policy system record

In the Decision Trace

The match quality and the confirmation source.
Each search step and its result.
The decision and the analyst.

In the Audit Trace

Each attempt and letter with time.
The claim or the report with time against the act's periods.
The payment or the remittance.

The handoff

Between the front doorand the back office.

The front door

The beneficiary is found by the search and meets the process on a secure screen with the claim forms; nobody has to know to claim.

The back office

The analyst decides only exhausted searches; the death claim process pays found beneficiaries; the state report is generated from the record.

The Decision Desk

An exhausted search goes to the unclaimed property analyst in the Decision Desk with the recorded steps and only continue with a named step, prepare for escheatment with the due diligence letter, or hold with a reason.

Proof

In scope.Proof at scale, not one process at a time.

The kind of process Callvu runs in production for customers in this industry. Ask for a reference on this exact process. The results below are the industry's published proof; each claim code links to its record on agents.callvu.com.

Phoenix put more than 100 processes live in under 3 months.

Across Callvu customers

More than 1,000 processes are live across Callvu customers.

Across Callvu customers

Questions

What buyers ask next,answered plainly.

How often is the death master file comparison run?

At least semi-annually under the state unclaimed life insurance benefits acts, with each match opened as a case and confirmed within the act's period.

What counts as a good-faith search?

The contacts on record, the insured's other policies and accounts, the agent, public records and a locator service, each attempt recorded with its date and result so the effort is provable at examination.

When are benefits escheated?

After the dormancy period (commonly three years from knowledge of the death) with the due diligence letter sent in the state's window, the report filed on the state's date and the funds remitted.

Related processes

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