As a rule of thumb, you should choose life insurance policy amounts for seven to ten times your annual salary.

If you have a copy of the deceased's life insurance policy and you are the beneficiary then all you need to do is get a copy of the death certificate and bring it to the life insurance company or their agent. If everything is straight forward, then your claim will be processed within a few days although it may take longer.

If you don't have the policy but know one exists it will be more difficult and may require some detective work. If you know the company where the deceased's vehicle or house was insured, check with them. Most people tend to purchase all their insurance from one provider. Look for cancelled checks or bank statements and you may find the name of the life insurance company there. As a last resort, wait for the next premium notice to arrive in the mail when the next payment is due. There are also a number of private businesses that will help you search for the policies but they will charge a fee or percentage of the policy's value.

There is online help. You can search internet databases that list unrecovered assets.

Read more:

http://www.asset-recovery-service.com/lifeins.html

http://nupn.com/insurance.htm