Complaint Review: MIB Solutions Inc. - Braintree Massachusetts

MIB Group, Inc. (MIB) has provided data to the life insurance industry for fraud detection and deterrence since 1902. Because of MIBs unique role in the life and health insurance industry, MIB has data that is unavailable from any other source and it maintains a unique, secure and confidential database containing over 120 million records, which represent applications for individually underwritten life insurance processed since 1995 by a majority of North American life insurance companies. This data is derived from MIBs 450 member companies. Using this data, MIB Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MIB Group, provides the Policy Locator Service to families of deceased persons so they have an opportunity to discover life insurance policies. There is no life insurance database in the U.S. or Canada that is more comprehensive or robust than MIBs.  Although the Policy Locator Service provides many families with a useful tool for discovering individual life insurance policies, MIB Solutions prominently displays in writing the various limitations of PLS so that consumers may decide whether to invest the sum of $75 for a PLS search.


Upon receipt of a request for PLS, MIB Solutions searches your loved ones name against our database of application activity. During the life insurance application process, MIBs services are utilized by MIB Member companies (with the consumers prior authorization in writing) to protect against application fraud. This type of activity is stored in the MIB database and is searched to create a possible  report on for Policy Locator Service. As our legal notice states, application activity does not guarantee that a policy was issued. It is information that you can use to pursue further research with a specific life insurance company. As the MIB website states (www.policylocator.com), there are many reasons why the MIB database may not provide a lead for some life insurance policies, as follows:

- Policies issued more than 14 years ago do not appear in the MIB database. 
- Group insurance policies ( life insurance that is typically provided by an employer) do not typically, so they would not appear in our database.  Because these are simplified/jet issued policies that are not fully underwritten , MIB is not searched and there is no MIB record for application activity. Policies provided by the Federal government to its employees also fall into this category.
- Only a small number of Veteran policies are actually underwritten and go through the MIB process.  Most are simplified/jet issue as they are similar to group policies.
- Insurance companies do not check MIB on policies with lower dollar values.  Polices in the $10,000-$90,000 range are sometimes not run through the MIB fraud service and would not appear in our database.

MIB has explained these limitation in its FAQs on the PLS website.

The Policy Locator Search also cannot provide consumers with the following information:
- whether insurance policies were actually issued or the dates upon which they were issued;
- whether any such insurance policies are still in force or were in force at the time of an insureds death;  
- the identity of the person who applied for the insurance (i.e., the applicant rather than the insured when they are different persons);
- the identity of the beneficiary for the policy proceeds;
- the identity of the policy owner or premium payor;
- the amount of coverage or the type of life insurance; or
- information on the existence of group life insurance coverage . 
 
Information about PLS and its limitations is available on the PLS website and can be reviewed before ordering a PLS at (http://www.mibsolutions.com/pdf/Policy_Locator_Service_QandA.pdf). Consumers should carefully read through this information to determine if the Policy Locator Service will suit their needs.

I am also a VICTIM of MIB Solutions.  I requested information about my father's life insurance policies.  I also received a sparsely worded letter telling me they were unable to locate any information for him.  I have already received a check from one nationally known insurance company and I know of a least 2 other policies.  Yet their thorough search of their data base turned up nothing under my father's name???  This company is a total fraud and scams people who are in a vulnerable position after losing a loved one.  I am going on every consumer complaint site on the net to let unsuspecting people know they should BEWARE of MIB Solutions.  They are scammers who will steal $75.00 from you in the blink of an eye.