life assurance long shot

motor_bike

hi,

my dad died a couple of years ago and we have just got round to sorting through his paperwork and belongings. we found a letter from a solicitor with a life assurance policy. the letter says that the policy held by the previous lender has been enclosed, although the enclosed policy does not belong to my dad. the names on the policy and the policy belong to someone else, the solicitor must have got mixed up and sent the wrong policy. now my thinking is that my dad did have a policy ??. i contacted the solicitor and they said they only keep records for 7 years but they do hold an arkive database and there maybe some details on therebut the person in charge was notin untill tomorow. so, i then thought may be my dad used the same assurance company as the policy that was sent to him by mistake, so i called standard life and explained the situation and they were very helpfull, the policy that was sent to my dad was finished years ago and that i could send the policy to them or i could dispose of it. they had no record of my dad having taking out a policy with them. they said it looks like my dad had taken a policy out proberbly with another company and as i said the solicitor had sent the wrong policy by mistake. so is there any way or anywhere i could find out if my dad had a taken out a policy ?. thanks simon

InsideInsurance

See http://www.which.co.uk/money/savings-and-investments/guides/find-unclaimed-assets/life-insurance-and-friendly-societies/ for some ways of tracing life policies

Most obvious is also checking bank statements to see if there are any unexplained payments over the years to insurers

motor_bike

so even though i am not the policy holder i can still use the searches ?, and thanks for the info

InsideInsurance

Its not something I am close enough to but it would seem daft if a system designed to trace life insurance policies are not accessable by at least executors given the most common reason for searching would be the death of the insured.