You may have heard me say that Life Insurance is my most important coverage. But how does it pay should the unthinkable happen? Unfortunately last December I had to personally find out when a close relative passed away. The process was fairly straightforward. The first step was to file a claim with the insurance company by completing a form and then submitting an original death certificate. This was reviewed by the company and then mailed us the check. The entire process took 6 weeks, which is within the 4-8 weeks average. It is good to note that sometimes the family needs funds right away to pay for final expenses (i.e. funeral costs, burial, etc). You can usually assign part of the life insurance payout to the funeral home to cover for the expected costs.