Understanding Your Life Insurance Policy

The Mayer, Graff & Wallace team explain what a life insurance policy is and what to do if you feel you are not receiving the life insurance benefits you’ve paid for.

A life insurance policy is a contract between you and the insurance company. In exchange for your premiums, the insurance company is supposed to provide the beneficiary with insurance benefits. Every insurance policy is different, although life insurance policies typically cover funeral expenses or provide beneficiaries with a lump sum payment thereby allowing the beneficiary to use the benefits for specific means. Life insurance policies can be a great way to assist your loved ones upon death. Unfortunately, insurance companies all too often place obstacles in between you and the insurance benefits you paid for.

One such hurdle insurance companies use is misrepresentation. In the context of a life insurance policy, an insured fills out an application and must answer those questions truthfully. The problem is some answers may be incorrect, however unintentional. Insurance companies may use any incorrect answer to deny you life insurance benefits. However, the misrepresentation must be material to the risk, meaning if you died from a drug overdose and failed to disclose a drug problem on your insurance application, that could be a valid reason to deny you life insurance benefits. However, not disclosing a drug problem on your insurance application even though you know you had one, but died from something completely unrelated, should not allow an insurance company to deny your beneficiary life insurance benefits. An insurance company may still try to deny you life insurance benefits, all for an incorrect answer that has nothing to do with the loss. The insurance company will badger you, bully you, and threaten you with civil or even criminal proceedings.

Do not let the insurance company bully you. If you feel that your insurance company is not providing you the life insurance benefits you paid for, please contact the attorneys at MGW Law as we have the experience and expertise to handle an insurance company and get you the benefits you deserve.