How do we find out if a life insurance policy is still active?

We all live in Nevada, if that's important.

My brother passed away in December. He did not have a will, and going through his paperwork has been an ordeal. Neither my dad nor I have found his original policy, but I know one did exist. My parents took out life insurance policy on us kids in the 1970s through General American, which was bought out by MetLife. It's a paid up endowment, with dividend options to purchase additional insurance, so no premiums are required.

When I spoke with someone at MetLife, at first she said my brother's policy was inactive. She didn't explain this, but then said this was a group policy and transferred me to the group policy number. That person looked it up and said it was not a group policy. My dad got a similar response when he emailed MetLife. I did submit a request to the naic life policy finder website, but I'm aware that if I am not the beneficiary I will not get a response.

How do we get a straight answer out of MetLife? If my brother cashed out the policy, that's fine–we just need to know this for probate. How do we tell the probate attorney what items have a beneficiary (life insurance, retirement accounts/pension, etc.) if MetLife won't tell us that?

Thank you in advance.

submitted by /u/saga_of_a_star_world
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