Life Insurance benefit – Less Loan Amount – getting details

My father recently passed, and I was a beneficiary on a small insurance policy taken out nearly 40 years ago. It was a policy through John Hancock solely in his name, with no spousal involvement, and direct beneficiary me. I received the benefit check, but it had a "Less Loan" amount deduction. As a family, we were very confused by this. This policy was over 40 years old, matured long ago, and my parents were always financially well off, so there would be no reason to take a loan on such a small policy. I called John Hancock to inquire about any details of the loan (type of loan, maybe?), but they would only discuss it with the policyholder (who, of course, is deceased). They did suggest a formal letter in writing to the company may allow disclosure of loan details. I wrote the letter, but not confident it will have a result.

Regardless, do you have any insights on how to proceed to obtain details or typical "less loan" scenarios? The circumstances are just odd. He would never need to take a loan on such a small policy, and even if he had, it would have been repaid long ago. It was only a $15K policy. Are there other types of "loans" or loan language that could result in almost 1/3 of the policy being denied under a "Less Loan" deduction? Not the money so much as the principle – and it just did not make sense knowing my father and his wealth.

Thanks for any input!

submitted by /u/a_gunslinger
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