Each insurer keeps the paper

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners says that if a life policy is found and you are the person the company will deal with, a certified death certificate and the company's claim form are what people typically send. The same office's consumer note says to have the policy numbers and a death certificate, and that you get those certificates from the funeral home or from the state where the person died. It also says some institutions want the original death certificate, not a photocopy. That is the company's form, not a rule this desk invents.

How to count before you order

• List each company you will actually write to. One photocopy does not automatically serve the next company.
• Ask each claim form whether they want a certified copy, whether a photocopy is enough, and whether they send the paper back. If the form is silent, call the company and write down the answer.
• A lost-policy search is not the claim. New York's Lost Policy Finder asks for dates and an address to start the search. The certificate comes later, if a company finds a policy and sends a form.
• Subtract copies the funeral home already ordered for an insurer. Then order the shortfall once, from the vital records office for the place of death.

This desk does not say a claim will be paid, does not say who the beneficiary is, and does not establish an attorney-client relationship. Read the claim form. Order one certified copy per company that still needs one.