In many circumstances, excessive alcohol consumption can affect whether a life insurance benefit is paid or denied. When filling out the application and any related questionnaires for a life insurance policy, the most important thing you can do is to be completely honest. You generally won’t be prohibited from purchasing life insurance even if you drink alcohol. However, if you drink alcohol or have an alcohol abuse problem, and you lie about it and then the insurance company finds out, your benefits likely won’t be paid out upon your passing. We just won a 1.3 million Unum life insurance claim. You can read about a denied AD&D claim, a delayed life insurance claim or denied life insurance claim.
Most Life Insurance Policies Will Deny A Claim If The Death Was “Self-Inflicted”
In general, most life insurance policies will deny a beneficiary’s claim if the insured’s death was a result of self-inflicted behavior. Many insurance companies go as far as to say that a death that occurs due to driving while intoxicated is essentially self-inflicted. Since it’s well-known that drinking and driving is dangerous and could easily cause a person to die, most insurance companies would deny this claim on that basis. Insurance companies generally refuse to pay out claims for self-inflicted deaths in an attempt to avoid insurance fraud.
Most Life Insurance Policies Will Deny A Claim If The Death Was Due To Illegal Behavior
Driving after drinking alcohol, in many cases, is illegal. While it’s legal to drive if your blood alcohol content is under a specific limit, once it exceeds that limit, it’s unlawful to drive even if you aren’t in an accident. The simple act of drinking and driving when you’re over the legal limit is enough to constitute a crime. If the insured is in an accident as a result of their illegal behavior – drunk driving – most life insurance companies will deny paying out a claim to the beneficiaries.
What If Alcohol Intoxication Wasn’t The Cause Of The Crash?
It’s possible for a person who has been drinking to get into an accident, but the alcohol wasn’t actually the cause of the accident. If this happens, would a life insurance claim still be denied because the driver who passed away had alcohol in their system? In most cases, it depends. If the insured’s blood alcohol content wasn’t over the legal limit at the time of the crash, the claim shouldn’t be denied. If the insurance company denies the claim in a case like this, you may be able to fight it and win. Many policies have a clause stating that a claim will be denied if the illegal activity is the sole cause of death. In most cases, though, this will never be true unless the drunk driver dies from alcohol poisoning. While intoxication might be the cause of the crash, it’s possible to argue that it wasn’t the cause of death.
However, if the insured’s blood alcohol content was over the legal limit, even if the intoxication wasn’t the cause of the accident, it’s still possible that the claim will be denied since the insured was engaged in illegal activity at the time of their death. This situation is a bit more nuanced and will vary depending on who you purchase the policy from.