If you have an equitable life insurance policy, it’s important to fully understand your coverage details. An equitable life insurance policy lookup allows you to review key information like your coverage amount, premiums, beneficiaries, and more.
Keeping up-to-date on your policy ensures you have adequate protection that aligns with your current needs and financial situation.
What are Equitable Life Insurance Policies?
Equitable life insurance refers to a type of permanent life insurance policy with both guaranteed and non-guaranteed policy elements. The guaranteed elements include a minimum death benefit, guaranteed cash values, and guaranteed premiums. The non-guaranteed elements are dividends that may be paid to the policyholder.
Here are some key features of equitable life insurance policies:
- Flexible premiums: You have flexibility in timing and amount of premium payments, provided you meet the guaranteed minimum.
- Lifelong coverage: It provides lifelong insurance coverage as long as you continue making the guaranteed minimum premium payments.
- Tax-deferred cash value growth: The cash value portion grows on a tax-deferred basis.
- Dividend potential: If the insurance company does well, they may pay dividends to the policyholder to enhance their benefits.
- Level death benefit: The death benefit amount stays level versus decreasing over time.
Compared to whole and universal life insurance policies, equitable life offers more stable guarantees and safety for policyholders with strong dividend potential. This can provide great lifetime coverage, though initial premiums tend to be higher.
Why Lookup Your Policy Details?
There are a few key reasons why it’s important to periodically look at details on your equitable life insurance policy:
- Ensure adequate coverage:
As your financial situation and needs change over time, you may need to reassess your life insurance coverage amount and terms. Doing a policy lookup allows you to confirm your death benefit aligns with your dependents’ needs.
- Verify key policy factors:
Check details like contract status, cash value accumulation, projected dividends, loans or withdrawals taken, premium payment structure, and more. This information is key for monitoring your policy health.
- Check beneficiaries:
Divorce, deaths in the family, new children, or other personal changes often necessitate beneficiary updates. Confirm your designations are current.
- Catch administrative errors:
Errors can occur with data entry, account changes, address updates, or more. Review details to spot any discrepancies.
- Avoid surprise lapses:
Skipping premium payments or withdrawals/loans lowering your cash value can put your policy at risk for termination. Regular check-ins prevent unexpected lapses.
Overall, occasional check-ins and an equitable life insurance policy lookup give you peace of mind that this protection is aligned with your long-term financial plans.
How to Lookup Your Equitable Life Insurance Policy
If you know who issued your policy, the easiest way to look up details is by contacting your insurance provider directly. Call their customer service line and ask to review your policy.
Some key details to have handy are:
- Full name & contact info
- Social security number
- Approximate date you purchased the policy
- An estimate of death benefit, cash value, policy type, etc.
This allows the representative to identify your policy and provide information like:
- Policy type
- Status (active, lapsed, terminated)
- Issue date & period
- Face amount/death benefit
- Cash value
- Premium payment history & amounts due
- Dividends paid & accumulation
- Beneficiaries & contingent beneficiaries
For additional details, they may mail you a copy of your policy contract or statements. If you lost contact with former issuers or need more records, check with unclaimed property departments run by the state treasurer’s office. They may have information on lapsed policies or benefits paid out that they are trying to distribute to beneficiaries.
You can also access an equitable life insurance policy lookup tool through third parties like PolicyGenius.
After entering key details, their licensed professionals can provide a summary of many policies and even help make changes. This costs a small fee but saves the legwork of tracking down documents.
What to Look For in Your Policy Details
When you receive the report on your equitable life insurance policy, whether from the issuer, state unclaimed property, or third-party aggregators, check these key items:
Current coverage and contract status: Is your death benefit amount still sufficient to meet financial needs, based on debts, college savings goals, and family situation? Ensure the policy status is active versus lapsed or terminated so your beneficiaries receive a payout.
Premium details: Verify premium amount, grace periods, due dates, autopay enrollments, and payment frequency align with your expectations and budget. Make any adjustments needed to maintain active payments.
Cash value and dividends: Check current cash value accumulation against past statements and projected amounts to ensure appropriate growth. Review dividends earned and if you want to change dividend options.
Loans or withdrawals: Note any outstanding loans borrowed against the policy which lower the death benefit paid to beneficiaries. Also factor in large cash withdrawals impacting cash value.
Beneficiaries: Confirm primary and contingent beneficiaries are updated based on any major family changes. Coordinate with wills/trusts and financial powers of attorney.
Monitoring these details on a regular basis through an equitable life insurance policy lookup ensures your coverage continues to meet your needs even as your life circumstances change.
Updates to Make on Your Equitable Life Insurance Policy
Based on your equitable life insurance policy lookup, here are some common updates to consider making:
Beneficiary designations: Divorce, deaths, newly added family members, estate planning changes, and more may necessitate naming new beneficiaries. This ensures payouts go to the right dependents.
Coverage amount: You may need to increase or decrease your death benefit to equal 10-15x your current income or cover specific financial goals upon passing. Adjust coverage via policy upgrades, cash withdrawals impacting face values, or acquiring supplemental policies.
Premium payments: Decrease premiums through dividends if cash flow is tight or increase payments if policy dividends allow to power additional cash value growth.
Dividend accumulations: Shift to cash dividends for flexible income or reinvestment if currently taking term insurance dividend options. Or vice versa if needing to pause cash accumulation.
Contact updates: Change phone, email or addresses on file if any have changed. Coordinate with financial power of attorney and executor contacts too.
Policy loans: Take out or pay back loans against the cash value as makes sense for accessing funds or increasing death benefits passed to beneficiaries.
Additional riders: Attach long-term care, waiver of premium, accidental death, or other riders depending on current needs and gap analysis.
How to Contact Equitable Life Insurance
Equitable Life can be contacted directly via the following channels:
By Phone
- 1-800-668-4095
Via Email
By Mail
- Equitable Life of Canada
- One Westmount Rd N
- Waterloo, ON N2J 4C7
Conclusion
Regular equitable life insurance policy lookups empower you to proactively adapt your coverage to support your financial plan as life evolves. Reach out to licensed professionals for guidance in fine-tuning details.
With strong customer service ratings, competitive pricing, and over 100 years of trusted operations – Equitable Life stands out as a top-choice insurance provider for both individual and workplace coverage needs.