How to Check if Old Life Policy Claimed

OBIWAN

Hi everyone, I'm in need of a bit of direction about how to find out if a old life insurance policy was claimed.


I was clearing out some of my late mum's old papers last weekend and found a couple of life policy documents that she took out a couple of years before she passed away and I'm sure werent picked up by the solicitor. I was one of the executors of my mum's estate.


Theyre both with HSBC so I called them to ask if the policies were claimed. Ive since been passed around several departments and finally got passed over to claims yesterday and they told me that they will send out claim forms for all policies my mum had and I will have to make a new claim on each and provide death cert, copy of will, proof of my ID, etc...


I have the policy numbers so it seems an awful lot of hassle to find out what should be a yes/no answer, but instead I need to contact the solicitor and get the files from archive which will take weeks and will be revisiting quite an emotional process. My younger sister was also an executor and I don't really want to put her through this if it can be avoided.

Mum also had an account, investment and savings with HSBC, and so at the time they were given all the necessary docs, so should have everything they're asking for.


Is there a quicker way to find out if these policies were redeemed?
thanks in advance for any help.
Obi