What Happens if the Nominee Dies Before the Policyholder?

Life insurance is an investment that will take care of your financial goals, when you are alive, and your family’s goals if you are not. Nomination is the facility in the life insurance that will ensure the benefits reach the intended parties after your demise.

Important Factors in Life Insurance Nomination

Life insurance is one financial instrument where nomination is very important. Thus, you need to provide nominee details with the application form itself. Here are a few important things to note about life insurance nomination:

i. The only policyholder or insured person can assign nominees
ii. Nominees are eligible to receive policy benefits only after the policyholder’s demise
iii. Nominees can be your family, blood relations or other people
iv. In the case of zero nomination or missing nominees, the benefits can be distributed as per the Indian /Hindu Succession Act(s)
v. You can nominate a minor in your life insurance policy. However, you will need to add a guardian for the same
vi. You can also add a senior citizen as a nominee in your policy

Beneficial Nominees

Beneficial nominees are the ones legally entitled to receive the benefits of your policy. You should always clearly specify the beneficial nominees in the policy. You will also need to define the share of each beneficial nominee if you add more than one to the policy.

What to do After a Nominee’s Death?

The nominee’s role is conditional to the event of a death claim where policy benefits cannot pass on to the policyholder. Thus, if the nominee dies before the policyholder, you can simply change the nomination details of the policy.

You can contact the insurer and submit a new nomination form with updated details. The new submission will nullify all previous nominations. Thus, make sure to alter only the parts you need to and also fill in the details which have not changed.

Changing Nominees with EIA

EIA or Electronic Insurance Account keeps your life insurance plans in one place and makes it easier to manage your policies. If you are using EIA for your life insurance policies, you can change the nominee details easily through the account.

Also, remember to update the administration details of your EIA if the same nominee had been assigned the role.