We've had pretty good success in requesting that checks for the full amount of the proceeds be issued to the beneficiaries, but they usually hope that saying, "oh, you can just write a check for the full amount of the account," will be enough to convince people to leave the money with them, but if you push, you can get them to pay the funds out in full.

And it's not, of course, just the insurance companies; it's also the banks: it's gotten increasingly difficult to close individual (not joint) accounts for someone who has died, with many banks requiring not just a personal appearance in the bank by all the executors, but insisting that the accounts cannot be immediately closed - they first must open an actual estate account, and then that can be closed - but not, of course, on the same day.  No, they take advantage of grief and inertia, and are counting on your just leaving the money there, so they can keep making money on it.  I had one bank manager tell me that even an executor who lived out of state would have to appear in person - which isn't the end of the world if the account is in a bank with offices across the country, but it's a giant pain when it's a regional bank with a limited geographical radius.

Funny that they don't require all that hoop-jumping when you want to open an account; they'll do that in a heartbeat, you know.