Another Ethos denied life insurance claim won. When a life insurance claim is denied due to death occurring during criminal activity, the denial often is based on clauses within the insurance policy, such as "illegal acts exclusions" or "felony exclusions." Our life insurance lawyers fight these exclusions and win. Some notable wins other than Ethos have been against: Globe Life; Mutual of Omaha; Mass Mutual; AARP; and more.
These clauses release the life insurance company from liability if the policyholder's death occurs while they are engaging in unlawful activities. The reason for these such exclusions is: to discourage reckless or unlawful behavior and to shield insurance companies from moral hazard or undue financial burden resulting from situations where criminal activity is a direct factor in the insured’s death. Insurance companies that are known for these denials are: Corebridge; Americo; Zurich; Farmers; Liberty Mutual; and more. Insurers often argue that compensating beneficiaries under such circumstances could be seen as incentivizing or indirectly rewarding risky or illegal conduct.
For example, A New York man died while attempting to outrun police officers during a high-speed car chase. Lincoln National insurer denied the claim, citing the illegal acts exclusion in the policy. The argument was that his death resulted directly from his engagement in unlawful behavior…namely, reckless driving and evasion of police, but our top life insurance lawyers fought this and won. Another case involved death resulting from drug-related activities as a Philadelphia man transporting narcotics died in a car accident while fleeing a police. Haven life insurance company denied the claim, pointing out that the deceased was actively involved in illegal drug trafficking at the time of death. Even though the death was accidental, the insurer argued that the illegal context surrounding the incident fell squarely within the policy's exclusion clauses, but our top life insurance law firm won. In another case, a man was killed in a shootout that occurred while he was attempting to rob a convenience store. Brighthouse Financial denied the life insurance claim because the policy explicitly excluded coverage for deaths occurring during the commission of a felony, but our life insurance attorneys won this.
While such exclusions may appear hard to understand, insurance companies try to show a direct connection between the criminal activity and the policyholder's death, however, our life insurance lawyers will fight these cases vigorously.