Ryan Polimeni
Almost half of the death claims result into a dispute or a delayed approval. Most of the times beneficiaries have no idea what all they are supposed to do to get their claim approved in a hassle-free way. Learn about all the paperwork you need to complete and the required documents to be produced for a quick approval.
Getting a life insurance policy can be an easier process than applying for a claim after the death of your loved one. While getting your life insurance, there are multiple resources to help you including the agents from the insurance companies as well.
Whenever you apply for an insurance quote, the representatives from the insurance providers reach you shortly, listen to your requirements patiently and suggest cheap life insurance quotes for you. At times, they also take care of half of the paperwork required.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case while making a claim once your loved one dies when the policy is in effect. Getting your claim approved is a complicated process and you need to produce various documents and take care of different paperwork and you have to do all this alone. This article provides the necessary information about the death claim and helps you prepare better to get your claim approved without any hassle.
Understanding the death claim
When the insured person dies before the maturity of a life insurance policy, the insurance provider is entitled to provide an accumulated cash amount to the beneficiary of the deceased. The whole process of making a claim for the proceeds and receiving it after completing the legal formalities is known as the death claim.
How to initiate the process?
To initial the whole death claim process, first of all, you need to inform your insurance provider about the death of the insured. This death information includes:
- Name of the insured;
- Insurance policy number;
- Date of the death;
- Place of the death;
- Name of the claimant.
If you have opted the insurance online, you can send your insurance provider an email notifying about the death with the above-mentioned information. For physical policies, you will need to send a letter to your insurance provider for the same.
Documents required to be submitted
In the process to approve your insurance claim, the insurer will need you submit a few documents to verify the same. They will ask for the original policy document, the insured’s final statement, police FIR, death certificate and required medical certificates.
If the insured has died due to an illness, the insurer will need medical certificate and records from the hospital or doctor treating the insured. In case of an accidental death, they may require the post-mortem report as well.
Sometimes, the insurance company may also ask for additional documents depending on the cause of death, sum insured and policy duration. In case of a doubt, you may also need to prove your relationship with the deceased through a valid ID proof.
Who can receive the benefits?
The moment someone requests life insurance quotes online and decides to buy a policy for yourself; along the coverage and premium, they also have to decide their nominee. They have to decide whom they want to deceive the proceeds after they die. It can be an individual or more than one person including their spouse or kids along with the spouse.
If the deceased has named you as a nominee in their insurance policy, you are eligible to file a claim to receive the proceeds. If they have named more than one person including you and all are adults, you all will need to apply together for the same.
What if there are no beneficiaries?
In thousands of the situations, there comes a situation where there is a lot of dilemma over the who will receive the proceeds. Sometimes, the insured forgets to announce their beneficiary or just passes away before doing the same.
In some rare cases, both the insured and beneficiary die in some unfortunate accident leaving none to claim the benefits. These are known as policies without nominees and in such cases, the benefits are provided to the person holding the succession certificate or someone who will produce the evidence of title from the court. They may be their kids, students or even the caretakers of the deceased.
Where will the disputes be resolved?
Insurance claims and disputes have a pretty old history. At times, poorly made claims are turned down by the insurance providers resulting in a dispute. If your life insurance claim faces any dispute, first of all, you are supposed to get the help of customer care department of the insurer.
You need to let them know about the scenario and file a complaint about the same. If the response is positive, you will receive the benefits soon. If they don’t respond in a satisfactory way, you can register your complaint in the Grievance Redressal Cell of your state.
They will contact the concerned company regarding the dispute and help you get the claim easily. Also, if you want to go for a judiciary decision, you can take the services of an insurance ombudsman to settle the matter outside the court.
How much time will it take?
The insurance settlement process initiates as soon as the insurer receives the information about the death of the insured. Next, the insurer asks to produce the required documents to verify the death of the insured as well as your relationship with them.
Once you have submitted all the requirements and completed the paperwork, the insurer has to approve your claim within 30 days.
If you claim need any further investigation after submitting the documents, this timeline may be extended. However, the claim needs to be settled anyhow within six months of the writing the first claim statement.
