As Life Insurance Awareness Month closes, you have have already taken steps to meet your life insurance needs, but what if a policy gets misplaced? Survivors who believe a recently deceased family member or friend may have purchased a life insurance policy without telling anyone, or without having secured the proper documentation, ought to investigate whether such a policy exists, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

If a family member or close friend dies, and you are unable to locate a hard copy of his or her life insurance policy, there is unfortunately no national or statewide database which lists-in-force life insurance policies. However, the I.I.I. suggests the following steps, which can recreate the deceased individual's financial affairs:

* Search files, band safe deposit boxes: A search of the deceased individual's financial files, bank books and canceled checks may show evidence of premium payments to a life insurer. In addition, life insurance policies are often placed in bank safe deposit boxes, so it is worth taking a close look at the contents of any such boxes. Finally, a review of the deceased person's address books may indicate the names of insurance agents or insurance companies with whom they conducted business.

* Consult current and prior financial advisers: Besides financial advisers, the deceased individual's attorney, accountant or insurance agent may be a potential sources of information about life insurance policies that were purchased, and the forgotten about.

* Review life insurance applications: The application for each life insurance policy is attached to that policy. So, if you can find any of the decedent's life insurance policies, look at the applications for them. The application will have a list of all other life insurance policies the deceased person owned at the time of the application.

* Check with state agencies: State governments regulate the insurance industry. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has a Life Insurance Company Location System; it can help you find the state insurance departments that can help identify insurers that might have written a life insurance policy for the deceased. The state comptroller's office in most states also takes receivership of unclaimed money from life insurance policies belonging to the deceased, if the deceased's beneficiaries do not lay claim to the policy's proceeds.

* Contact a private search firm: Several private companies will, for a fee, contact insurance companies on your behalf to determine if the deceasd person had a life insurance policy. Moreover, the MIB Group Inc., an insurance trade association used by hundred of U.S. carriers in underwriting life insurance applications, maintains a Policy Locator Service. Its database contains more than 150 million records representing inquiries submitted on individually underwritten life insurance applications processed during the last submitted on individually underwritten life insurance applications processed during the last 12 years. An MIB Group search costs $75, and it claims to find evidence of one or more life insurance policy applications about 25 percent of the time. MB Group customers must provide it with the proper documentation, including the policyholder's death certificate and proof indication the person requesting access to the deceased person's life insurance information is entitled to receive it. Details and an application are available to MIB's Policy Locator Service.