Increasingly, insurance companies are sending out checkbooks that provide beneficiaries with access to life insurance proceeds through an interest bearing account, rather than sending a check for the full amount of the policy. Critics think that the checkbook system is not needed and that how a beneficiary uses life insurance proceeds is between the recipient and his or her financial planner. About half of retained asset accounts are cleaned out the first year to be invested elsewhere. Of the other half, 70 percent are maintained for the long term.