You need to review the decedent's personal papers to see if the original policy can be found.   File cabinets, desks, and other places where the decedent stored his bank statements are good place to start to look.    The bank statements would have the name of the insurance company, as well as may also have the customer service number.    Since premiums may only be paid annually, you may need to look at several years' worth of statements to find out.   You may also need to look at the decedent's past tax records, as the return may include an annual statement of payment of interest.

You should also look at the decedent's bank statements to see if there are any ACH transactions or checks to ANY insurance companies.    There is a good chance that the decedent may have purchased the life insurance policy through the same company that sold them auto, home or health insurance, and a call to the hazard insurance agent may give you the policy information.

If the decedent was employed at the time of death, you should be check with the employer to see if the life insurance was an employee benefit, at which case, they would have a copy of the policy and beneficiaries.   If the decedent was a retiree, I would suggest contacting the employer, as part of the retirement process, the decedent was likely giving the option to maintain coverage by purchasing the life insurance through the carrier.

Lastly, there are some on-line propriety databases that may be helpful, but my experience has been extremely poor with these paid services.  For instance, even when I know that a decedent has a policy, and I know the policy number, I will run a search to see if there are any additional policies that may need to be collected.   However, more than two-thirds of the time, these services do not contain entries for the policy that I know about. 

Shawn can not offer legal advice in this format.   He can only provide general information that you may find helpful.  You should call an attorney and seek specific legal advice if you need legal guidance, you can rely on for your situation.

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