Having life insurance is a good and responsible way to provide financial protection to your loved ones if you pass away. Life insurance claims often go through without difficulties. However, there are times when life insurance companies deny claims. Learning the tactics, they use and how you can fight back can help in ensuring you get the financial compensation you deserve.
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Misinterpretation of a life insurance policy
When you file a life insurance claim within a few years after a life insurance policy is taken out, the company will check the health history of the policyholder. If there were known health challenges that were not indicated in the policy application, the claim could be rejected.
It’s crucial to provide all the relevant details during application for a life insurance policy. Misinterpretation of a plan doesn’t warrant life insurance denial. You can seek count intervention and prove that the omissions or inaccuracies were not intentional and may not have been related to the cause of death of the policyholder.
Inaccuracies and omissions made by an employer
Most people opt to get health insurance through their employers. These group policies are easy and affordable for anyone wishing to acquire life insurance. In this case, the employer is responsible for explaining the benefits to the workers and ensuring all employee details are filed correctly with the insurance companies.
Life insurance companies can deny a claim because of errors made by a policyholder’s employer. Depending on the situation, it’s possible for you to demand that the claim should be honored. If the employer made unacceptable errors, you could demand that they out the life insurance claim.
Change of beneficiary
A claim could be denied if you’re not listed as one of the beneficiaries probably because the policyholder changed the list of beneficiaries after a divorce or any other event. Though only the legal beneficiary can file a life insurance claim, you can prove that the change of beneficiary shouldn’t have gone through. For example, if your spouse was supposed to maintain life insurance to offer child support or your divorce process isn’t complete.
Policy Exclusions
Each life insurance policy has specific exclusions created to offer protection to the company. These policies are presented in a very precise language to maximize the number of insurance claims rejected. Keep in mind that a life insurance company may try to take a compromising view about any exclusion. This isn’t the way the courts will see the entire issue.
These are some of the ways life insurers deny legitimate claims. If your claim was denied, you need a professional, highly experienced ERISA life insurance attorney. You can’t count on an insurance company to act in good faith and reverse the denial. According to the data released by the Department of Labor and other empirical data, most insurers who deny claims rarely honor the claim unless taken to court or threatened by a policy beneficiary with an experienced lawyer.
