How would I go about seeing if my mother(who is deseased} had any life insurance policies on herself?

OK, well, there is no central database. So you can't just pop her name in somewhere and see if it comes up. Insurance departments don't track it, either.

AND, One person can't "cash in" a policy - the insurance company makes the payments DIRECTLY to whomever SHE LISTED TO GET PAYMENTS. So there isn't any "equally divided" - it's all done however she set it up, the insurance company takes care of that.

And it's a private transaction. So unless you do go down there and get LEGAL AUTHORITY to get access to her banking transactions from her old bank (not likely, as she left a surviving spouse), and go through her files, you're not going to know. No one is going to tell you unless you're a beneficiary - and if you WERE, you'd have a check around the same time all the OTHER beneficiaries got one.

Sure, there might be some family secrets. But they can't "withhold" a life insurance payout to you. So don't let it keep you up at night.

Without actually going through her papers, there's not really any way you could find out. A life insurance policy is a contract between the insured and the insurance company. The beneficiary receives the proceeds tax free. Unless you are a party to the transaction, there's no way you will ever know unless someone tells you or if it comes out during discovery during a lawsuit.

If someone has a pile of money from an insurance policy, it's because your mom wanted them to have it. It's tough, but things can get nasty when someone dies and there's money lying around.

For any life insurance policies, they will only be paid out as listed on the policy. If your mother had a policy to you, you would be the only person able to collect on the policy. As for the rest of her assets, since her husband is still living, I would bet that he got the majority of her money.

Given your story, the only way is to track down the record of that payment you made and contact the company to tell them you need to file a claim. They will tell you if the claim has already been filed.

Just a guess here...I've never dealt with this...but usually when someone dies the estate goes through probate. I'd start with the clerk of court for the probate court that handled your mother's estate. If they don't know the answer, they may can give you ideas where to check.