Nobody else is going to do this

Social Security's death file is closed to anyone not certified for the three years after a death, and certification is available to an institution but never to a family. A bank or card issuer that has not certified simply does not learn of the death from the government.

That is why the notifying job exists at all, and why it falls to the family. It is also why it is worth doing early rather than tidily: those three years are exactly the window in which a dead person's credit is used.

There is one real exception, and it runs the other way. In several of the states Sahvelo has read, a life insurer that learns of a death has to come looking for the beneficiary. The table further down says what each state requires.

1

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Three calls that carry a right — if you make the request

Most notification is administrative. Three kinds of company owe the estate something specific the moment they are told, and in each case the trigger is a request rather than the news.

A credit card issuer

Regulation Z requires every card issuer to have written procedures designed to let the administrator of an estate work out and pay the balance. On request by the administrator the issuer must state the balance, and doing it within 30 days of the request is deemed timely. It does not apply where a joint accountholder remains on the account — that account is not a dead person's account.

The request does more than produce a number. From the moment it is received the issuer must not add a late fee, an annual fee or an over-limit fee, must not raise the rate, and must waive or rebate the trailing interest if the balance is paid in full within 30 days of the disclosure. That trailing interest is the small balance that reappears on an account a family thought it had closed.

All of it dates from the request. Phoning to let them know, without asking for the balance as administrator of the estate, gets none of it.

A pension or 401(k) plan

A survivor calling a retirement plan is usually told what the plan has decided rather than what the plan says. ERISA gives any participant or beneficiary the right to the underlying documents — the summary plan description, the latest annual report, the trust agreement, and the other instruments under which the plan is established or operated — on written request, for no more than the cost of copying.

An administrator who does not mail the material within 30 days of the request may be held personally liable, at the court's discretion, for up to $100 a day, and each beneficiary counts separately. Suing over it is rarely proportionate. Naming the section in the letter is free, and a letter that names it is answered differently from one that does not.

This is the right behind a promise made elsewhere on Sahvelo: a widow told that the single-life pension form was elected can ask the plan to produce the spousal consent that made the election effective. She can do more than ask.

A life insurer

Telling one insurer is rarely one notification. Depending on the state, the insurer must then search its own entire book for other policies in the same name and push that search out to its parent, its subsidiaries and the contractors that keep its records. What each state requires is in the table below.

2345

How this works company by company

First: what do you hold that lets you act?

Almost every frustrating call in this job comes from the same mismatch — the company owes a duty of confidentiality to its customer, and the caller has not yet shown they stand in the customer's shoes. What you hold decides whether the call is a notification, a claim, or a request that cannot be answered yet.

What you holdWhat happensWhat you do
You are a surviving joint owner You are already the company's customer. Nothing waits for probate and nothing waits for authority. Notify, remove the deceased owner, and ask what changes for you — on a bank account that includes the deposit-insurance restructuring question, and on a credit card it means the estate-debt rules do not apply.
You are a named beneficiary You can claim what was left to you, but you have no general right to information about anything else the person held. Make the claim with a certified death certificate and your ID. For a retirement plan, put the document request in writing at the same time — the right to plan documents runs to beneficiaries, not only to employees.
You are the appointed executor or administrator You stand in the estate's shoes for every account in the sole name, and you are the person the federal card-issuer rules are written for. Send the certified death certificate and the court document appointing you, and make the requests in that character — for a card, ask in writing for the balance as administrator of the estate.
You are the successor trustee You take over anything the trust holds under the trust's own terms, without probate — but you have no authority over what the trust does not hold. Present the trust document, or a certification of trust, with the death certificate and your ID.
You hold none of these yet You can tell a company someone has died. You cannot make it tell you anything back, and that is usually correct rather than obstructive. Notify anyway — it flags the account and stops new activity — and note what you were refused. Then get the authority. Persistence is not the unlock; standing is.

The procedure, at every company

The steps repeat. The department names, the forms and the waiting times do not, which is why this says what to ask for rather than what you will be told.

  1. Write the list before you make the first call

    Statements, the last twelve months of bank transactions, the mail, and the email inbox will between them name almost every company that needs telling. Building the list first means you are notifying rather than remembering, and it is the difference between one round of calls and four.

  2. Ask for the estate or bereavement team, not the general line

    Almost every large bank, insurer, brokerage and card issuer has a specialist unit for this, and the general line will usually restart the process from the beginning. Ask by name: the estate servicing team, the deceased account services department, the bereavement center.

  3. Open by saying what you are, not what happened

    "I am the administrator of the estate" or "I am the named beneficiary" routes the call correctly on the first attempt. Leading with the death routes it to condolences and a callback.

  4. Put anything that starts a clock in writing

    The card-issuer balance request, the ERISA document request and any insurance claim all carry deadlines that run from the request. A phone note does not prove the date; a letter or a secure-message copy does. Keep the copy in the same place as the death certificates.25

  5. Notify first; close later

    Notifying flags the account and stops new activity. Closing too early strands a final direct deposit, a refund, or a benefit payment that has to be returned through the same account — and, in the case of a phone line, the two-factor codes the family still needs to reach everything else.

  6. Assume every company keeps its certified copy

    Most do not send it back. Order per institution rather than expecting to recycle one, and ask each company whether it will accept a plain photocopy — many will, for notification, and will only require a certified copy for a claim.

  7. Keep your own record of who has been told

    No company keeps this list and nothing on Sahvelo keeps it for you yet. Date, company, department, who you spoke to, what you asked for and what they said — because the thing families lose track of is not what to do, it is what has already been done.

The exact requests worth making by name

  • To a card issuer: "I am the administrator of the estate and I am requesting the amount of the balance on the account under Regulation Z, 12 C.F.R. §1026.11(c)."
  • To a retirement plan: "As a beneficiary I am making a written request under ERISA §104(b)(4), 29 U.S.C. §1024(b)(4), for the summary plan description, the latest annual report, and the plan and trust instruments."
  • To a life insurer: "Please confirm what other policies, annuities or retained asset accounts you hold for this person, and confirm you have notified your affiliates to search their records."
  • To a bank: "Please put me through to your estate servicing team", and for a joint account, "what do I need to restructure so the deposit insurance is not reduced?"
  • To any of them: "What is your reference number for this notification, and what is the next thing you need from me?"

What the insurer has to do, where you live

Everything above applies everywhere. The life-insurance duties do not, and the thirteen states split into two models. Six run a modern unclaimed-benefits act: the insurer must sweep a death file on a schedule and then work to find you. Seven answer from unclaimed-property law instead, which sets a clock rather than a search duty — and under a clock, nobody is looking for you.

What it must do once it knows

The answer in 13 states

  • Arizona

    Take reasonable steps to pay the beneficiary if nobody has contacted the company within four months of the death. Arizona's duty sits in its unclaimed-property statute rather than in a modern unclaimed-benefits act, and it is a duty to pay rather than an obligation to search the rest of the company's book.6

  • California

    Check its own records for other policies, annuities and retained asset accounts in the same name; notify every US affiliate, parent and subsidiary and any contractor holding its records, and make a good-faith effort to see that they check too; conduct a documented thorough search if no beneficiary makes contact within 120 days, finished within a year; and provide claim forms within fifteen days of locating a beneficiary. It may not charge the family for any of it.7

  • Florida

    Within 120 days of learning of a death: confirm it against other records, check whether the person bought other products, work out whether benefits are due, and make a documented effort to locate and contact the beneficiary — which must include sending its own claim-process information. Separately, and regardless, take reasonable steps to pay if the beneficiary has not been in touch within four months. No fee may be charged for any of it.9

  • Illinois

    Nothing that reaches you directly. Illinois answers this from its unclaimed-property act rather than from a modern unclaimed-benefits act, and what that act sets is a clock rather than a duty to search: proceeds are presumed abandoned three years after the death, or two years after the insured would have reached the limiting age on the mortality table behind the policy, whichever comes first. At that point the money goes to the State, where a family can still claim it — but nobody comes looking for you first.16

  • Michigan

    Take reasonable steps to pay the beneficiary if nobody has contacted the company within four months of the death — the same shape as Arizona's, and from the same place: Michigan answers from its unclaimed-property act rather than from a modern unclaimed-benefits act. It is a duty to pay, not a duty to search the rest of the company's book. If nothing is paid, the money is presumed abandoned three years after it became due and goes to the State.17

  • New Jersey

    Search every policy and account it holds for that person — the second policy nobody knew about, and the retained asset account left over from an old settlement. Then, within 90 days of the match or of that search, confirm the death, begin locating the beneficiaries and, where a death-file match was the trigger, complete a documented good-faith effort to find them; once found, the insurer must hand over what is needed to make the claim. It is not obliged to push the search out to its affiliates the way New York and California are, so name each company you want searched. And none of it attaches to a policy issued before 1 March 2018.121314

  • New York

    Search every policy and account it holds for that person, and notify its US affiliates, parent, subsidiaries and record-keeping contractors and take all steps necessary to have them search too. It must begin locating beneficiaries within ninety days, and if it cannot find them it must keep searching until the money escheats.10

  • North Carolina

    Six things, within ninety days of learning that someone may have died: confirm the death against its other records, review its records to see whether that person bought any of its other products, decide whether benefits may be due, locate the beneficiaries, send the claim forms with instructions on what a valid claim needs, and document every attempt to find them. The second of those is the one families do not expect — a second policy nobody knew about is the insurer's job to find, not yours. None of it may be charged to you. Where nobody is found, the money escheats to the State.18

  • Ohio

    Nothing that reaches you directly. Ohio answers this from its unclaimed-funds statute rather than from a modern benefits act, and what that sets is a clock rather than a duty: money owed under a matured or terminated life policy is unclaimed funds after three years, and then goes to the State. One clause helps a family that cannot find the paperwork — the money counts as payable even though the policy was never surrendered as the contract required.19

  • Pennsylvania

    Within ninety days of a match: a documented good-faith effort to confirm the death against other records, and then, if benefits are due, documented good-faith efforts to locate the beneficiaries and the claim forms with instructions on whether a death certificate is needed. None of it may be charged to you. Where the beneficiary cannot be found, the money escheats to the Commonwealth three years after the insurer knew of the death — so the clock runs from the company's knowledge, not from the death.20

  • Texas

    Within ninety days of the match: a documented good-faith effort to confirm the death against other records, a review of the insurer's records for other products the person held or was covered by, and a decision on whether proceeds may be due. If they may be and no beneficiary has been in touch by the ninetieth day, a documented good-faith effort to find each of them and send the claim forms. If the insurer cannot confirm the death after a match, it may treat the policy as still in force on its own terms.21

  • Virginia

    Take reasonable steps to locate the beneficiary and pay the proceeds, if nobody has been in touch within four months of the death. Virginia asks for steps to locate as well as to pay, which Arizona's otherwise identical provision does not. If nothing is paid, the money is presumed abandoned five years after it became due — the longest clock of the thirteen states here — and then goes to the Commonwealth.22

  • Washington

    Validate the death within ninety days of having notice of it, by a documented good-faith effort using its other records — unless the insurance title sets its own deadline, in which case that one governs. What a match does not do is pay anyone. It is expressly not proof of death for the purpose of making a claim, and it does not change what a beneficiary has to do: someone still has to claim.23

Whether it has to find out for itself

Sweeping the federal death file is the difference between a company that waits and one that looks.

The answer in 13 states

  • Arizona

    Sahvelo read A.R.S. §44-302 and it imposes no duty to compare the company's records against the Social Security Death Master File. That is a statement about that section, not about Arizona law as a whole — Sahvelo has not located a sweep requirement elsewhere in the Arizona code and does not assert from that silence that none exists. Practically: assume an Arizona insurer will not learn of the death unless you tell it.

  • California

    Yes — comparisons against the Death Master File at least semiannually for the in-force book and for policies lapsed in the last 18 months. California is also the only one of the five to define what counts as knowing: a death certificate, a Death Master File match, or any other information already in the insurer's records from which it should know the person has died.78

  • Florida

    Yes — a comparison against the Death Master File on at least an annual basis before 31 August each year, using the update files after the first full sweep. A match creates a presumption that the person is dead unless the insurer holds competent and substantial evidence that they are living.9

  • Illinois

    Sahvelo read 765 ILCS 1026/15-201 and it imposes no duty to compare the company's records against the Social Security Death Master File. That is a statement about that section, not about Illinois law as a whole, and no negative is asserted from the silence. Practically: assume an Illinois insurer will not learn of the death unless you tell it, and if years have already passed, check the State Treasurer's unclaimed property records as well as the insurer.16

  • Michigan

    Sahvelo read MCL 567.228 and it imposes no duty to compare the company's records against the Social Security Death Master File. That is a statement about that section, not about Michigan law as a whole, and no negative is asserted from the silence. Practically: assume a Michigan insurer will not learn of the death unless somebody tells it.17

  • New Jersey

    Yes — a cross-check of every covered policy and account against the federal death file at least semi-annually, running the updates each time provided the whole file has been used once. The insurer must work with partial identity data where that is all it holds, and must allow for the common variations in spelling and dates that would otherwise defeat a match. But employer group life under an ERISA plan is expressly excluded, along with preneed-funded and credit life cover: nobody sweeps the file for those.1115

  • New York

    Yes, and most often: a cross-check of every policy and account against the death index no less frequently than quarterly, with the entire index used at least once a year.10

  • North Carolina

    Yes — a comparison against a death master file every six months, and records that are not electronic are not excused: the sweep runs on whatever records are most easily accessible. Two carve-outs narrow it. A policy with an active premium payment in the previous eighteen months is outside the sweep, and business issued before 1 October 2015 can be exempted where an officer or director swears an attestation about the company's past conduct — but even an exempted insurer must sweep everything issued on or after that date.18

  • Ohio

    Sahvelo searched the whole Ohio Revised Code on the Legislative Service Commission's own full-text search for the phrase death master file, and it returned no records. That is a statement about that search on 19 August 2026, not a claim that no Ohio law imposes a sweep. Practically: assume an Ohio insurer will not learn of the death unless somebody tells it, and if years have already passed, check the Ohio Division of Unclaimed Funds as well as the company.19

  • Pennsylvania

    Yes — at least twice a year, the full death master file once and the update files after that. Pennsylvania is the only state here that tells an insurer how not to miss you. Its matching procedures must allow for nicknames, initials used in place of a first or middle name, interchanged first and middle names, compound and maiden and hyphenated surnames, a transposed month and day in a date of birth, and an incomplete Social Security number. One caveat worth knowing: the insurance commissioner may exempt an insurer altogether, or let it compare less often than annually, on a demonstration of hardship.20

  • Texas

    Yes — at least twice a year, the full file first and the update files after. Texas adds something none of the others do: every later comparison must include policies that have lapsed since the previous one, so cover that ran out after the last sweep is still checked. Two limits decide whether any of this reaches a particular policy. Group cover is swept only where the insurer keeps the records, and a policy under an ERISA employee benefit plan is outside the chapter's definition of a life insurance policy altogether — which is most employer-provided life cover.21

  • Virginia

    Sahvelo read Va. Code 55.1-2507 and it imposes no duty to compare the company's records against the Social Security Death Master File. That is a statement about that section, not about Virginia law as a whole, and no negative is asserted from the silence. Given the five-year clock, the practical advice is the opposite of patience: tell the company yourself, in writing, and keep the date.22

  • Washington

    Not required, and not optional either — which is a distinction worth understanding rather than a contradiction. Washington does not order the sweep in this section. What it says is that if the company runs a comparison for any purpose at all, finds a match and validates it, the company knows, and cannot afterwards say it did not. The State's own examiners may run the comparison during an examination, unless the company has already run one covering the period examined.23

Sahvelo has read twelve of these thirteen states straight through at their own sources. In the other one, at least one answer above is marked not established — that mark is what Sahvelo knows, not a gap it is working around. Another state's rule may differ, and we would rather say that than generalize. Most states have adopted some version of the model act, but the sweep frequency, the deadlines and the exemptions are exactly what varies. Two variables decide more than the model does. New Jersey's act only reaches policies issued on or after 1 March 2018, so the age of the policy decides whether the duty applies at all; and in Texas, and in practice under several of the others, employer-provided group life under an ERISA plan sits outside the act entirely. Ask any state's insurer which of its duties reach a policy of that vintage and that kind.

Questions people ask about this

  • Which companies actually have to be told?

    Anything holding money, owing money, insuring something, or billing something. Banks and credit unions, card issuers, insurers of every kind, brokerages, retirement plans and pension administrators, mortgage servicers and landlords, utilities and subscriptions. The credit bureaus are worth doing early and are covered separately, because the reason to tell them is fraud rather than administration.

  • Can I notify a company before I am appointed executor?

    Yes, and you should. Notification is not a claim. Telling a company flags the account and stops new activity long before anyone has authority to move money, and the fraud window opens on the day of death, not on the day letters are issued. What you cannot do without authority is get information back.

  • A company will not tell me anything at all.

    For a bank or a brokerage that is usually correct: the duty of confidentiality is owed to the account holder, and establishing authority is the unlock rather than persistence. A retirement plan is different — the document right runs to any participant or beneficiary on written request, so if you are a beneficiary the refusal is not automatically proper. Put the request in writing, cite the section, and keep the copy.

  • We told the insurer and heard nothing back.

    In California, Florida, New Jersey and New York that silence may itself be a breach — each imposes a duty to search and to make contact once the insurer knows of a death, on the timetables in the table above. Saying so on the phone changes the conversation, and the statutes give you the language: ask what search was done, when, and what its record of that search shows.

  • Should we just cancel the cards?

    Cancel the ability to spend, but do not treat the account as finished. On a sole-name card, make the balance request as administrator first — it is what stops the fees and the trailing interest. On a joint card the estate-debt rules do not apply at all, because a joint accountholder remains, and the surviving holder should expect the account to be reissued rather than settled.2

  • How do we keep track of who has been told?

    On paper or in a spreadsheet, for now. Sahvelo does not yet hold a record that persists between visits, and it would rather say that than pretend the page is doing it. This is the single most-requested thing this topic cannot do, and it is recorded as a product gap rather than quietly worked around.

Where this sits in the process

Before this

These produce something this topic needs.

Related

Sources

Three federal rules and thirteen state statutes, each quoted from its own text. Everything about a particular company's department, form or waiting time is that company's own, and this page says what to ask for rather than what you will be told.

  1. 42 U.S.C. §1306c — restriction on access to the Death Master File

    Why the government does not tell private companies, and for how long.

    uscode.house.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  2. 12 C.F.R. §1026.11(c)(1)–(2) — timely settlement of estate debts (Regulation Z)

    The card issuer's duty to state the balance to the administrator, and the thirty-day safe harbour.

    ecfr.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  3. 12 C.F.R. §1026.11(c)(3) — limitations after receipt of request from administrator

    What the balance request stops: fees, rate increases and trailing interest.

    ecfr.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  4. 29 U.S.C. §1024(b)(4) — furnishing plan documents on written request

    The ERISA right to plan documents, on written request, for a participant or beneficiary.

    uscode.house.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  5. 29 U.S.C. §1132(c)(1) — penalty for failure to furnish plan information

    The daily penalty for a plan administrator who does not answer within thirty days.

    uscode.house.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  6. A.R.S. §44-302 — property presumed abandoned, and the insurer's duty on death

    Arizona's four-month duty on an insurer that learns of a death.

    azleg.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  7. Cal. Ins. Code §10509.944 — Death Master File comparisons and the duties on knowledge of death

    California's search, affiliate-notification, thorough-search and no-fee duties.

    leginfo.legislature.ca.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  8. Cal. Ins. Code §10509.942(g), (n) — knowledge of death, and what a thorough search means

    What counts as a California insurer knowing, and what a thorough search means.

    leginfo.legislature.ca.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  9. Fla. Stat. §717.107(6), (8), (9), (11) — Death Master File comparisons and the duty to find the beneficiary

    Florida's annual sweep, its 120-day list, and the bar on charging for it.

    flsenate.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  10. N.Y. Ins. Law §3240(d)–(f) — cross-checks, the search on notification, and locating beneficiaries

    New York's quarterly cross-check, the search-everything duty, and the ninety-day clock.

    nysenate.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  11. P.L.2017, c.236 §§1, 3 (N.J.S.A. 17B:17-26, 17B:17-28) — semi-annual death index cross-check

    New Jersey's semi-annual death-file cross-check, and its duty to allow for variant data.

    pub.njleg.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  12. P.L.2017, c.236 §4 (N.J.S.A. 17B:17-29) — search on notification of death

    The search of the insurer's own book on notification — and the absence of any affiliate duty.

    pub.njleg.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  13. P.L.2017, c.236 §5 (N.J.S.A. 17B:17-30) — confirming the death and locating beneficiaries

    New Jersey's ninety days to confirm the death, locate the beneficiaries and document the effort.

    pub.njleg.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  14. P.L.2017, c.236 §§1, 7 (N.J.S.A. 17B:17-26) — definition of "policy" and the effective date

    Why the act reaches only policies issued on or after 1 March 2018.

    pub.njleg.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  15. P.L.2017, c.236 §6 (N.J.S.A. 17B:17-31) — what the act does not apply to

    What New Jersey excludes, starting with employer group life under an ERISA plan.

    pub.njleg.gov Checked 2026-08-13

  16. 765 ILCS 1026/15-201 (Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act: when property presumed abandoned)

    Illinois's abandonment clock for life insurance proceeds, and the absence of a search duty in that section.

    ilga.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  17. MCL 567.228 (Uniform Unclaimed Property Act: unclaimed life or endowment insurance policy or annuity contract)

    Michigan: a three-year clock, and a duty to pay four months after the insurer learns of the death.

    legislature.mi.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  18. N.C.G.S. 58-58-390 (Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits: requirements for insurers)

    North Carolina: the semiannual sweep, the six duties within ninety days, and who is exempt.

    ncleg.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  19. Ohio R.C. 169.02(C) (Unclaimed funds: life insurance and annuity moneys)

    Ohio: the three-year clock, and what an unsurrendered policy does not forfeit.

    codes.ohio.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  20. 40 Pa.C.S. 3703 (Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits: death master file comparison)

    Pennsylvania: the sweep, and the name-matching errors an insurer may not hide behind.

    legis.state.pa.us Checked 2026-08-19

  21. Tex. Ins. Code 1109.011, 1109.012 (Unclaimed life insurance and annuity contract proceeds)

    Texas: the sweep that reaches lapsed policies, and the ERISA exclusion that limits it.

    statutes.capitol.texas.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  22. Va. Code 55.1-2507 (Virginia Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act: funds owing under life insurance policies)

    Virginia: the longest clock of the thirteen, and the four-month duty to locate and pay.

    law.lis.virginia.gov Checked 2026-08-19

  23. RCW 63.30.130 (Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act: knowledge of death of insured or annuitant)

    Washington: when a comparison run for any purpose becomes knowledge of the death.

    app.leg.wa.gov Checked 2026-08-19

Sources last reviewed 2026-08-19. Where a source is marked pending re-verification, the page says so wherever the claim appears.

The federal rules quoted here are the floor and they apply to every card issuer and every ERISA plan in the country. The insurance duties are state law and Sahvelo has now verified thirteen states. What no source establishes — and what this page will not pretend — is that any of it happens without someone asking.