New mortality data product provides a substantially more complete alternative to the outdated standard.
INDEPENDENCE, OH / ACCESS Newswire / May 12, 2026 / The Berwyn Group (Berwyn), the leading provider of population management and death audit solutions, today announced the launch of the BerwynDMF, a comprehensive death data product built as a substantially more complete alternative to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Limited Access Death Master File (LADMF), while maintaining compatibility with organizations’ existing LADMF workflows.
Since federal legislation restricted access to the full Social Security Death Master File beginning in 2011, the resulting LADMF has covered a declining share of U.S. deaths. Organizations across insurance, healthcare, and financial services have faced an increasingly fragmented landscape causing them to rely on periodic audits, notification-dependent processes, or patchwork data sources that leave significant mortality exposure unaddressed. This gap allows for fraud, financial leakage through overpayments, and material failures in meeting regulatory obligations.
Berwyn is solving that risk. BerwynDMF delivers approximately 70% weekly coverage of U.S. deaths compared to the LADMF’s current rate of less than 16%, based on observed detection rates. Built from thousands of data sources, cross-validated for accuracy, and updated on a regular cadence, it is delivered as a licensed data file that is identical in layout to the LADMF. The format makes it easy to integrate directly into existing claims, compliance, and administration workflows.
BerwynDMF operates as a one-way file delivery, unlike match-based services that require clients to transmit member, accountholder or policyholder data. No personally identifiable information (PII) is ever sent.
“Organizations relying on the Limited Access Death Master File today are working with a significant data gap, which creates real financial and compliance exposure,” said John Bikus, President of Berwyn Group. “That gap has real consequences, including overpayments that compound quietly, escheatment obligations that go unmet, regulatory exposure that accumulates, and actuarial forecasts built on data that no longer reflects reality. BerwynDMF closes that gap with a file that drops directly into existing workflows, giving organizations a practical path to continuous mortality matching without rebuilding their infrastructure.”
BerwynDMF consolidates Berwyn’s multi-source death detection infrastructure into a single, continuously updated file, enabling organizations to minimize the lag between a death and its detection by replacing periodic review with continuously monitored data. For compliance teams managing recurring payment obligations, the difference is material: missed deaths accumulate as overpayments, reserve exposure, and regulatory liability until they are found.
Designed for Multi-Vertical Use
BerwynDMF is designed to serve the distinct financial, compliance, and operational needs across three primary markets:
Insurance: Life and annuity carriers can apply BerwynDMF to claims adjudication, overpayment prevention, underwriting accuracy, and fraud detection – including detection of claims submitted on behalf of living policyholders.
Healthcare: Healthcare and managed care organizations can apply BerwynDMF to deceased member removal, audit readiness, and detection of fraudulent claims submitted under deceased member identities.
Financial Services: Banks, broker-dealers, custodians, and credit unions can use BerwynDMF to support state unclaimed property compliance, account fraud prevention, IRA distribution triggering, and estate administration workflows.
For more information, contact The Berwyn Group at http://www.berwyngroup.com or [email protected].
About The Berwyn Group
Berwyn is a population intelligence company specializing in data integrity and death audit solutions for pension funds, insurance carriers, third-party administrators, healthcare plans, and financial institutions. Berwyn serves over 2,000 clients, processing tens of millions of covered lives nationwide. Its flagship product, CertiDeath®, is the industry gold standard in validated death identification, covering 98% of U.S. deaths with under 0.03% false positives. CertiCensus® is the only end-to-end integrated population management solution combining data integrity, decedent identification, location services, and beneficiary updates. The BerwynDMF, Berwyn’s proprietary alternative for the government’s Limited Access Death Master File, is the latest addition to its industry-leading death audit suite. For more information, visit http://www.berwyngroup.com.
SOURCE: The Berwyn Group
