For those of you that use a death database to verify participants, what action do you take when your receive initial information that a participant is deceased? Do you stop benefits immediately or do further investigation? Do you do anything differently for those in payment status vs deferred vested status?

Usually the deaths you find are those who are not in pay status, such as vested terms with a deferred benefit. If you get a "hit" on a person in pay status, you should verify immediately. Stopping the payment w/o verifying seems like asking for trouble.

I also suggest you search this website, especially the Message Boards, for more. I recall a similar discussion a few months ago.