Have you had insurance cancelled question?

ROSS50

My husband and i had joint life assurance and critical illness cover. Due to non-disclosure of information relating to my husband (innocent mistake!!) his part of the critical illness cover was cancelled. All other areas of the cover i.e our life assurance cover and MY critical illness cover remained intact.

My question is when applying for insurance i.e car, home, future life assurance etc..... you are asked if you have had previous insurance cancelled. Should my answer be yes? Is critical illness cover classed as an insurance?

This is something that has just dawned on me and i want to make sure that we do not get stung by the "non-disclosure" clause again!!!

Thanks in advance!

dunstonh

My question is when applying for insurance i.e car, home, future life assurance etc..... you are asked if you have had previous insurance cancelled. Should my answer be yes? Is critical illness cover classed as an insurance?

It is an insurance and if the question doesnt specify what type of insurance then you need to disclose it for the rest of your life.

ROSS50

Thank you. I had a horrible feeling that would be the case and just wanted to make sure.

Another question, that i should have put in my first post. Because the life assurance/critical illness cover was in joint names. Does this mean that although it was my husbands part of the policy that was cancelled that i would also have to declare insurance having being cancelled i.e..

1 - Husbands car insurance........ answer would be Yes to having insurance cancelled.

2 - My car insurance....... would answer be yes or no to having had insurance cancelled.

Hope i have explained this ok, not very good at explaining things.

Thank you

lisyloo

My own lay persons interpretation is that your insurance was not cancelled.
You still have the insurance cover in place.

You husband may need to dealwith human brokers in future so that he can explain it was "inadvertant" non-disclosure.
Computer systems have limited interpretation and he may face "computer says no" or high quotes as a result of this question being interpreted negatively.

ROSS50

Thank you!

I understand what you are saying about it not being cancelled totally and that was my original thought but now i am begining to doubt this and this is why i posted here to get others opinions.

Don't know what to do now!!!!! Scared to phone the insurance companies and explain incase they start cancelling cover and then i have more than one cancelled policy to deal with!!

I will need to gather all my insurance doc's and get this sorted. It's amazing how one small innocent mistake could haunt you for the rest of your days! We live and learn!!!!

Thanks again:D

dunstonh

Another question, that i should have put in my first post. Because the life assurance/critical illness cover was in joint names. Does this mean that although it was my husbands part of the policy that was cancelled that i would also have to declare insurance having being cancelled i.e..

yes. Joint owners means the error occured on a joint policy and applies to both of you I'm afraid.

Don't know what to do now!!!!!

The question asked by the insurer should make it clear. The question will vary but you answer it exactly how its asked.

Some may word it that you dont have to declare it. Some wont but read the question and answer as it is asked and nothing more and nothing less.

huckster

ROSS50 wrote: »

. Due to non-disclosure of information relating to my husband (innocent mistake!!) his part of the critical illness cover was cancelled. All other areas of the cover i.e our life assurance cover and MY critical illness cover remained intact.

Did you get a letter to advise that part of the policy had been cancelled due to non disclosure?

How did the non-disclosure come to their attention?

Quentin

ROSS50 wrote: »

Thank you!

I understand what you are saying about it not being cancelled totally and that was my original thought but now i am begining to doubt this and this is why i posted here to get others opinions.

Don't know what to do now!!!!! Scared to phone the insurance companies and explain incase they start cancelling cover and then i have more than one cancelled policy to deal with!!

That opinion may be giving you false hope! Usually the cancellation of a joint policy affects all parties.

Don't be scared to sort this out, as it is better done now than discover at sometime in the future you have given grounds to refuse a claim.

And don't just rely on any phone conversation you have over this. Get their confirmation of any effect this has on your policies in writing!

pedro123456

Ross50, It would be interesting to find out how the Non Disclosure came about, as Huckster is asking.
This bears no answer to your original question but if ND results from a claim have a look at this please

http://www.abi.org.uk/Information/40472.pdf

ps the ABI are the IC's bodyguards

ROSS50

I think one of the main problems was our financial adviser read out the questions to us, and we answered them, he filled in the answers and we signed the application. Which in turn has lead to a bit of a communication disaster and my husband and I should have triple checked the application before signing. I blame knowone other than my husband and I for this situation!

Approx 3 years after taking out the critical illness cover my husband had been diagnosed with MS. Although my husbands condition had not reach the stage where he would be eligible to claim the "insurer" started claim proceedings when we notified them of his diagnosis as per our policy doc.

There were two sticking points.....

1 - It transpired that my husband had, a few years prior to completing the application, been asked to attend hospital for tests due to numbness in his arm. This was an intermitent problem and for whatever reason he did not attend this appointment. At the time of applying for the cover he had forgotten this when the appropriate question arose. I did not know my husband when he was given this appointment and therefore had no knowledge of it or else i would have made him attend.

2 - One of the questions asked was, in short, has your parent etc... ever suffered or died from any of the following conditions..blah, blah. We said NO. My husbands mother also has MS. The reason for saying no was because the way we heard the question read was "has your parent etc.... ever died from any of the following........

I clearly remember at the meeting saying to my husband and financial adviser "well your mum has MS but she has not died" therefore the answer put was No. If i had heard the question correctly or been corrected by the FA we would have most definatley declared his mothers condition. We had nothing to gain by not!!!!

Anyway I am not hear to pin blame on anyone other then ourselves what is done is done and we will need to live with it. At the end of the day the insurer said that had we answered the questions correctly my husband would have been declined critical illness cover anyway. So it is not as if we have 'lost' anything other than have a cancelled policy hanging over our heads for the rest of our days!!

huckster

I think this non disclosure would be classed as inadvertent if MS was not discussed previously with the GP.

You husband should have mentioned his numb arm and the doctors appointment, if the GP had discussed the possibility of MS and asked about family history. This would be considered deliberate non disclosure.

On balance, having thought about this, I think technically both of you should always disclose this, by discussing this when you arrange cover. The point is that cover, in part, had been cancelled due to non disclosure, even if the policy had not been cancelled.

This might make matters more complicated when you arrange cover, as you would have to phone Insurers or visit a broker, but I think this would be the safe option. It can be a small world in the Insurance industry and I could not guarantee that an Insurer would not have access to an in-house database, should you have ,say, a Car Insurance claim.