SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Insurance and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' Life Insurance Policy Locator has matched 583 beneficiaries in California with lost or misplaced life insurance policies or annuities – totaling over $11 million returned to consumers.

The locator can be found at https://eapps.naic.org/life-policy-locator/#/welcome .

Thousands of U.S. consumers have reaped the benefits from the tool since its launch last November.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners reported 8,210 beneficiaries have been matched with $92.5 million.

"The Life Insurance Policy Locator was created to help beneficiaries search for lost life insurance policies and to ensure consumers receive money they are entitled to," said California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. "This national tool has been an enormous success. I encourage everyone to use this tool to see if they are owed benefits."

More than 3,200 California consumers and over 40,000 consumers throughout the nation have conducted searches since the policy locator was launched.

The California Department of Insurance and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners developed the tool in 2016 to provide search capabilities to help find lost life insurance policies and annuities.

Since 2010, state insurance regulators have investigated unclaimed life insurance benefit payments.

In 2015, life insurers paid more than $74 billion in insurance policy benefits to consumers nationwide.