Solutions · Insurance & benefits

Find out an insured has died before the policy goes dormant.

Check insureds and beneficiaries against 17,565+ funeral-home and newspaper obituary sources. Each match comes with the source obituary, so claims and policy admin can open a file, contact the beneficiary, and document the search.

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✓Test keys on request✓Source obituary on every match✓Custom pricing

POST/api/v1/verify/batchCheck the insured and the named beneficiary on one policy. client_ref comes back on each result. Fictional data.

{
  "items": [
    { "first_name": "Harold", "last_name": "Vance",
      "birth_year": 1938, "address": { "state": "OH" },
      "client_ref": "POL-20418:insured" },
    { "first_name": "Joyce", "last_name": "Vance",
      "birth_year": 1941,
      "address": { "city": "Dayton", "state": "OH" },
      "client_ref": "POL-20418:beneficiary" }
  ]
}

In short

How can a life insurer find out a policyholder has died?

Most insurers learn of a death when a beneficiary files a claim, or later through a periodic Death Master File match. ObituaryMonitor adds a third signal: it checks insureds against published obituaries, which are often posted within days of a death, and returns found, possible_match, or not_found with a confidence band and a link to the source obituary. Teams use it alongside the DMF, not instead of it.

Who you can check	Insureds, annuitants, and named beneficiaries
What you send	First and last name plus city, county, state, or birth year
What you get	found / possible_match / not_found, confidence band, source obituary link
Volume	Batch of 50 per call, async jobs up to 5,000 rows, Screening Reports for larger files
Sources	17,565+ funeral-home and newspaper sources; no SSDI or death registries
Pricing	Custom, by volume; Screening Reports quoted per list

The cost of finding out late

What a late death notice costs an insurer.

Benefits that sit unclaimed

If no one files, the policy looks in force or quietly lapses. The beneficiary never hears from you, and the proceeds can end up reported as unclaimed property and escheated to the state.

Gaps between DMF matches

Death Master File access is restricted and its lag varies. A death that is not in your last file, or not in the file at all, stays invisible until the next cycle or a phone call.

Thin documentation when regulators ask

An unclaimed property exam or market conduct review wants to see that you looked. A search that left no record of what was checked, when, and against which sources is hard to defend.

What changes

What claims and policy admin teams get.

Open the claim file sooner

A found result with a high confidence band gives your team the date of death, location, and source obituary, so a claim can be opened and beneficiary outreach can start before anyone calls in.

Reach beneficiaries while you still can

Obituaries often name the surviving family. Family Extraction, through sales, returns the relatives named in a matched obituary with relationship and location where stated, a starting point when contact details on file are stale.

Keep dormant policies under watch

Register aged, paid-up, and non-responsive policies once. If a matching obituary is published months or years later, a signed webhook tells your system, with the policy reference attached.

Screen a whole block in one pass

Send an in-force, lapsed, or acquired block as a CSV and get a Screening Report back: a per-row result with source links, a PDF report, and an audit log. No integration needed.

Show the search you ran

Screening Reports can include Negative Search Certificates for names with no matching obituary, and API results carry a timestamp and search scope, so your file shows what was checked and when.

Route by confidence, not by hand

found, possible_match, and not_found map to clear queues. Send high-confidence matches straight to claims setup and hold possible matches for an examiner to confirm against the obituary.

Which product

Three ways insurers use it.

Verification API

Check a policy on demand

Verify an insured or beneficiary when a policy is flagged, a premium stops, or mail comes back. Batch 50 per call, or async jobs up to 5,000 rows.

Ongoing watches

Watch dormant policies

Register insureds once. We notify your claims or policy admin system by signed webhook if a matching obituary appears later.

Screening Reports

Review a block of business

Send a policy file once. Get CSV and PDF results with source links, an audit log, and Negative Search Certificates. Quoted per list.

Workflow

From policy file to claim file.

Send policy records

Name of the insured or beneficiary plus city, state, or birth year. Pass your policy number as client_ref.

We search published obituaries

Funeral-home websites and newspaper obituary sections across 17,565+ sources.

An examiner reviews the evidence

Each match has a confidence band, the matched name, date of death, location, and the source obituary to read.

Act in your claims workflow

Open the claim, start beneficiary outreach, or keep the policy on watch. Record the result against the policy.

Unclaimed benefits

Why do life insurance benefits go unclaimed?

A life insurance benefit goes unclaimed when the insured dies and no one files. Beneficiaries may not know the policy exists, may have moved, or may assume it lapsed. From the insurer’s side the policy simply goes quiet: premiums stop, mail is returned, and nothing tells the claims team a death has occurred.

Many states expect insurers to search for deceased policyholders on a regular schedule, often using the Social Security Death Master File, and to make a good-faith effort to find beneficiaries before reporting proceeds as unclaimed property. The DMF has known gaps and delays, particularly for recent deaths, so a DMF-only process will miss some insureds and find others late.

Published obituaries fill part of that gap. They are often posted within days of a death, they usually name the surviving family, and they come with a source your examiner can read. Some deaths never get a published obituary, so obituary checks work best as a second signal next to the DMF and your own policy data, not as a replacement for either.

Run the DMF match your process requires, then check unmatched insureds against obituaries
Screen lapsed, paid-up, and non-responsive policies, not only the in-force block
Check the beneficiary as well as the insured, so outreach goes to someone who can claim
Keep watches on dormant policies, since some obituaries are published months or years later
Keep the source link, timestamp, and any Negative Search Certificate with the policy file

Fits your systems

Where results land in your systems.

Claims system

Watches post to your endpoint by signed webhook when a matching obituary appears. The client_ref you sent, such as the policy number, comes back so the event attaches to the right claim or policy.

Policy administration

Async batch jobs up to 5,000 rows finish with a CSV export you can load back against policy records. Idempotency keys make retries on batch calls safe.

Compliance and audit file

Screening Reports return CSV plus a PDF report, an audit log, and Negative Search Certificates you can keep with unclaimed property and exam documentation.

Plainly

What you get, and what you do not.

It is

Obituary evidence with a link to the source
A confidence band so you can route claims and reviews
A second death signal to run alongside the DMF
Ongoing watches for dormant and non-responsive policies

It is not

A consumer report. Not for underwriting, eligibility, or other FCRA-regulated decisions
Proof of life when nothing is found
An official death certificate or government death registry
A replacement for a DMF search your process or regulator requires

FAQ