Unfortunately, there's no clearinghouse of information on life insurance policies. Here are some suggestions:

Go through canceled checks or contact your deceased relative's bank for copies of old checks. If he or she wrote checks to pay premiums, the insurer's name should be listed on the checks

Check old credit card statements. Your relative may have paid premiums by credit card

Check probate court records for details of your relative's estate. If the estate has gone through or is in probate court, a life insurance policy could show up as an asset

Contact any past employers to see if your relative had group life insurance

Contact other family members (i.e. brothers, sisters, or children) who may have been privy to your relative's finances. Perhaps they will know if he or she had insurance and from whom it was purchased. Also ask your relative's lawyer, banker, or accountant

Track down your relative's auto or home insurance agents. They may have sold him or her a life insurance policy or at least know from whom it may have been purchased.

Keep in mind that if no beneficiary comes forward to collect the death benefit, and your relative's insurance company cannot locate a beneficiary, the insurer has to hand over the death benefit to the state within a certain period of time (usually three years, although it varies by state). After the state receives the death benefit, a beneficiary still can come forward to collect the proceeds.

If you own a whole life insurance policy, you can take out a loan against the cash value you have built up in the policy. Of course, you will have to pay back the loan with interest. If you die before you pay back the loan, the balance that you owe will be deducted from the death benefit.

If you own a term life insurance policy, you cannot take out a loan against it because you do not build up any cash value in a term policy.

No. Death benefits from life insurance policies are free of income tax. However, the death benefit may be subject to estate and inheritance tax. It is subject to estate tax if the value of the insured's estate - including the death benefit - is more than $650,000. Inheritance taxes vary by state.

Most companies will require an exam. Some require an exam over $100,000 of coverage, others will require an exam with every application. The good news is that you will not have to pay for the exam. The cost will be absorbed by the insurance company.

Yes, there are insurance companies that specialize in high-risk applicants, although the premiums for these policies can be expensive.

Some of these companies are:

Citizen Security Life Insurance Co., (800) 843-7752 Empire General Life Assurance Corp., (800) 688-3518 Impaired Risk Specialists, (800) 285-3279 Presidential Life Insurance Co., (800) 926-7599 or (888) PRES- LIF

Once an insurance company receives a death certificate proving the demise of the insured, the beneficiary usually receives a death benefit within one week.

However, if an insured dies within two years of buying a policy, and the insurer conducts a follow-up investigation to see if the insured lied on the application, it could take 30 to 45 days before a death benefit is paid.

Most life insurance policies have an incontestable clause that states an insurer can refuse to pay the death benefit if it finds that the insured lied on his or her application. For example, if an insured died of lung cancer within two years of buying the policy, and the customer wrote on the application that he or she did not smoke, the insurer may have grounds to deny the claim.

Most life insurance policies have a two-year incontestability period that allows a life insurance company to deny a death claim if it discovers that a policyholder lied about a medical condition on his or her application. If the policyholder dies from the medical condition within two years of buying the policy, the life insurer has the right to deny the claim. For example, let's say you were a smoker but you did not disclose it on your application. If you died from lung cancer within two years of buying the policy, the insurer would have grounds to reject your claim.

However, if a policyholder dies after the two-year incontestability period, the insurer could still pay a death claim equal to the amount of life insurance you would have purchased if you had disclosed your medical condition. For example, let's say you paid $500 a year for a $100,000 policy, and you died from lung cancer five years after you applied for coverage. The insurance company may pay your beneficiary a death benefit less than $100,000 because you were not paying the smoker rate.

Yes. It's called a viatical contract. Viaticals allow people who are terminally ill to sell their life insurance policies for a percentage of its face value. Some viatical arrangements are private, perhaps among family members. These days, viaticals have become big business, with viatical companies luring investors to buy policies in bulk.

The U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that life insurance companies tell you why an "adverse decision" was made on your life insurance application (meaning it rejected you or placed you in a higher-risk class), according to Michael Bartholomew, senior counsel for the American Council of Life Insurers.

However, insurers are not required to go into great detail on why your medical condition led to an adverse decision. Bartholomew says that insurers do not like to "intrude" on the relationship between applicants and their physicians, and insurers do not want to be in the position giving an applicant a detailed diagnosis of his or her condition.

Bartholomew notes that if the life insurance company has acquired medical information from your doctor, you can ask your doctor for the same information, along with an explanation of your condition.