Our life insurance lawyers just settled a Stonebridge $500,000 life insurance claim that was denied. Has your life insurance claim been denied? You may feel that there is no recourse. Do not give up. With the help of a qualified life insurance claim denial attorney, you can receive the life insurance proceeds you are entitled to. In many cases, life insurance companies deny claims because they lack sufficient documentation. You many not have to face a denial at all if you provide the insurance company with all the documentation it needs to process the claim.
The insurance companies usually need a claim form, along with an official copy of the death certificate. The death certificate a funeral director often provides is not sufficient for this purpose. If the individual died within the first two years after the life insurance policy was issued, the insurance company may want to rule out suicide as a cause of death. This is because many insurance policies have a clause stating that a benefit will not be paid if the person committed suicide. The policy may specify that the beneficiary can receive a refund of the premiums paid to the date of death.
Read about contestability period
Reasons Why An Insurance Company May Deny A Claim
Every claim for benefits under a life insurance policy is examined carefully, and not all of them will be paid out. The reasons why a claim may be denied include fraud by the insured or the beneficiary and material misrepresentation by the insured on the application form.
Material Misrepresentation
- Smoking
- Drinking
- Age
- Medical
- Employment
- Activities
- Income
- Other policies owned
Whether the answer to a question may be material misrepresentation often depends on whether the question is considered ambiguous or unambiguous. An answer to an
ambiguous question in an insurance application cannot form the basis of a rescission action. Only those questions that are so plain and intelligible that any applicant can readily comprehend them can serve as a basis for finding a misrepresentation.
If the question in the application is unambiguous, and the response or failure to disclose constitutes a misrepresentation, the court must determine if the misrepresentation is material. Whether the misrepresentation is material is typically an issue of fact. The question the court must answer is whether the insurer has been induced to accept an application which it might otherwise have refused.
If your life insurance claim has been denied, please call our top life insurance attorneys. We are dedicated to helping families recover the life insurance awards allowed to them under the law.