Will life insurance pay out?

justry4n

Hi there, just wanted to see if life insurance will pay out for my mother's death, as we are currently planning what to do with her estate (i.e if it does payout, we will most likely keep it).

We had the death certificate through today, causes of death..
1a - Sepsis due to Staphylococcal Aureus Wound Infection
1b - Reptured thoracic aortic aneursym (December 2017)
1c - Loyez-Dietz Syndrome
1d - Aortic valve replacement (2005)

To put a background to this. The life insurance policy was taken out in June 1998, and was running to June 2018, my mother died in January.

With the syndrome part, she was only diagnosed with this in 2015, and previously wrongly diagnosed with Marfans in 2005, i'm assuming because she took out the insurance before being diagnosed with these it won't affect the claim?

My mother's aorta ruptured in December, she had this repaired, came home, and later got an infection which she was readmitted and later died of the above causes.

With the above in mind, can you see if there's a way the Legal and General life insurance won't pay out, or try to avoid paying the full amount of 90k?

Thank you all!

Aretnap

Sorry for your loss.

With virtually all life insurance policies there is no requirement to inform the insurer of changes to your health status, and even if you do inform them of an new illness they cannot cancel the cover or change the terms because of it. So the cause of death, how long ago the condition was diagnosed, or whether it was diagnosed correctly first time round, are largely irrelevant - they won't affect the payout. The only reason the payout might be affected would be if she was aware of the condition at the time she took out the policy and didn't declare it - which from what you say is not the case.

It couldn't really work any other way. If you had to tell your insurer every time your health took a turn for the worse, and they could cancel your cover or raise your premiums to unaffordable levels as soon as it looked as if you might not be long for this world, there would be very little point in having life insurance, as it would effectively only cover the most sudden of deaths. (Most premature deaths are not sudden). So the insurer asks you some questions about your health, you agree to pay the premiums and in return the insurer agrees to pay out if you die within the next 20 (or however many) years. In doing so they take on the risk that your health will deteriorate gradually over those 20 years as well as the risk that you'll suddenly be struck down by a heart attack or by a bolt of lightening.

kingstreet

Provided her medical history upto June 1998 was fully disclosed, there should be no reason the claim won't be settled in full.

Deepest sympathies. We lost my father in law to a AAA. He died three days after it, having never regained consciousness.

Robin9

Ring L&G, quote the policy ref and ask them if they want a certified copy.

BooJewels

I'm really sorry to hear of your loss, the last few weeks must have been most difficult for you; my condolences.

We're just in the process of claiming for a critical illness settlement and therefore I have been reading all the fine print etc. myself. My understanding is, as others have said, that it is the state of affairs on the day she took it out that matters, rather than events since.

She will no doubt have filled in a questionnaire about her health at the time - to see if she was under investigations for anything, had she recently consulted a doctor, or awaiting test results, had 2 immediate family members died from particular conditions etc. If they accepted her at the time and her answers were honest, then there shouldn't be any issues.

I don't know if they actually write to doctors etc. to check such things for life settlements, but I know that they certainly will for ours. I don't know that they reduce payouts either - as I understand it, it's all or nothing - you either qualify, or you don't.

Good luck.

HappyHarry

Sorry for your loss.

L&G are very good with dealing with claims, so when you are ready, give them a call.

L&G's latest statistics show that they pay their life insurance claims 98.6% of the time, so you probably don't need to worry.

http://www.legalandgeneral.com/files/library/protection/miscellaneous/2016claims.pdf

The remaining 1.4% will be either fraud (e.g. the life assured hasn't actually passed away), not meeting the terms of the policy (e.g. the life assured is seriously ill but has not been given a diagnosis of being terminal within the next 12 months), or the applicant has blatantly lied on their application form.