P2017-ND-098

On May 2, 2017, an employee of the Organization mailed a death benefit cheque to the deceased?s address, instead of the beneficiary?s address. The deceased is the beneficiary?s former spouse. The incident was discovered on May 12, 2017 and the Organization contacted the beneficiary to advise of the error. The beneficiary expressed concern that the mailing would likely be opened by a member of the deceased?s family. As a result, the family would learn the identity of the beneficiary, the beneficiary?s new last name, and possibly the amount of the death benefit. The Organization wrote to the Executor of the Estate of the deceased to request the return of the information addressed to the beneficiary or if the Executor could securely destroy the information and confirm it would not be used, shared or copied. To date, the Organization has not heard back from the Executor and has not received confirmation of the information being returned, destroyed, not copied or used.