The deceased person’s property is transferred at the time of death to the distributees of the death estate who, as a rule, decide together about the death estate’s banking and insurance matters up to the distribution of the estate. There is no legal deadline for the distribution of the estate, but the estate inventory must be carried out within three months of the death.
Managing and changing the death estate’s insurance policies
In many cases, managing the death estate’s insurance affairs requires that the estate documents (estate inventory deed/extract from the population register/will/powers of attorney) have been delivered to Pohjola Insurance and checked. However, some of the transactions can be carried out without all of the documents. In the list below, you can see what documents you need to handle different matters.
| Without the death estate’s documents you can: | After you have submitted an extract from the population register/estate inventory deed and we have checked that you are a distributee, you can: | After you have submitted and we have checked the extract from the population register/estate inventory deed, will and distributee powers of attorney, you can: |
|---|---|---|
| Forward insurance letters from the death estate’s address to another address | Receive information on the death estate’s insurance policies | Add or change the account number to which the refund of the death estate’s insurance policies is made |
| Get more time to pay the death estate’s bills | Terminate the decedent’s insurance policy for movable property and the related liability and legal expenses insurance until the date of sale or the expiry date of the lease, if the home that was the place of insurance has been permanently emptied of the insured movable property | Terminate insurance policies |
| Request the termination of the decedent's personal insurance policies. Personal insurance is terminated as of the date of death | Sign new insurance policies | |
| Make changes to insurance policies | ||
| Change insurance customer details |
Sending death estate documents to Pohjola Insurance
In order to manage or change death estate insurance matters, you need not only an extract from the population register or an estate inventory but also a power of attorney, entitling all or selected distributees of the estate to manage the death estate’s insurance matters. If you decide not to draw up a power of attorney, all of the distributees must be present when the estate’s insurance affairs are handled. If the decedent has made a will, send a copy of it to the insurance company. You will need authorisation for this by the beneficiary of the will.
You can send us the death estate’s documents (extract from the population register, estate inventory deed and attachments and power of attorney) easily online. By sending us the documents well in advance, you ensure that your visit goes smoothly.
If you cannot send us the documents online, you can mail the death estate’s documents to the following address
Pohjola Vakuutus Oy
Tunnus 5019075
00003 VASTAUSLÄHETYS
If you bring the documents with you to the bank, please note that they need to be reviewed before we can make changes to the insurance cover. This will take about two weeks.
If the death estate is an OP cooperative bank customer and you deliver to OP the estate documents for dealing with banking matters, you can at the same time inform the bank of the estate’s insurance policy with Pohjola Insurance. The bank can then forward the documents to the right place for dealing with insurance policies.
Power of attorney for handling insurance matters of the estate
You can use the power of attorney template to authorise someone to manage the death estate’s insurance matters. Use the link to below to print out the template.
If the person providing the authorisation is a customer of an OP cooperative bank, they can draw up an electronic power of attorney for dealing with the death estate’s banking and insurance affairs.
Once the death estate’s necessary documents have been submitted, it will take about 2 weeks to complete the checks. After that, the authorised person can contact the customer service to manage the estate’s affairs.
Validity of the death estate’s insurance policies
A distributee of the death estate may request the termination of the decedent's life insurance policies effective as of the date of death. Before terminating the policies, we will check the date of death from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
Any property insurance policies under the decedent’s name will remain valid until terminated in writing. You can terminate the policies by messaging us at op.fi or OP-mobile, for example. It is advisable to keep the policies valid until the insured property is either distributed or sold. After the assets are distributed, the death estate's property insurance policies are valid for the new owner for 14 days. Following the distribution, the owner must insure the assets.
A distributee of a death estate can terminate the decedent’s insurance policy for movable property and the related liability and legal expenses insurance without the authorisation of the death estate until the date of sale or the expiry date of the lease, if the home that was the place of insurance has been permanently emptied of the insured movable property following the sale of the home or the end of the lease. If you are dealing with a situation like this, you should mention it in the termination notice. In your notice, you must also provide evidence of being a distributee of the death estate (for example, by an extract of the population register or a copy of the estate inventory deed), unless these have already been submitted to Pohjola Insurance.
The death estate’s motor vehicle insurance policies will continue to be valid until the vehicles are registered to a new owner. Once that happens, the death estates insurance policy will end automatically on the basis of Traficom’s change of ownership notification. The death estate’s vehicle may also be decommissioned. For more information about the death estate’s vehicle matters, go to Traficom’s website.
Any extra insurance premiums are refunded to the account specified in the decedent’s insurance details, or if no such account exists, the funds may be claimed at an OP cooperative bank’s branch office in the form of a money order. If the decedent’s accounts have been closed or if the account details are not specified in the decedent’s insurance policy information, you should provide up-to-date account details, for example with the notice of termination. The account details are not updated automatically. Please note that the distributees of the death estate have to authorise the changing or notifying of the account details.
