Many times, the first defense a life insurance company uses to deny a claim seems simple: the life insurance company just says that the policy premium bill was not paid on time. The life insurance companies often say if the payment is not on time, the policy won’t cover the death. This is a legally incorrect statement in California, especially with a recent ruling of the California Supreme Court about what it takes for a company to cancel a life insurance policy.

Life insurance companies routinely deny claims due to non-payment of premiums. While some of these denials may pass the legal requirements, we see many of them that are violations of California law. People know that a policy requires payment. But few people know the actual legal requirements that a life insurance company must follow to lapse a life insurance policy–so it doesn’t pay for the death of a California insured.

The laws and regulations stating what an insurance company has to do when a payment is not received, so it can lawfully deny a life insurance claim on the policy, vary from state to state. California has a special law, passed in 2013, that applies to all current life insurance policies, even if you bought the life insurance policy long before 2013. This is a huge development that makes the denials of life insurance claims, by many life insurance companies, illegal in California. That means that we can, as your life insurance lawyers, make the life insurance company pay your claim–even if they have previously denied your claim, saying that the policy was cancelled or lapsed because of a lack of payment.

State laws are different in what a life insurance company has to do to legally lapse and not pay a policy. We have made life insurance companies pay on policies even when they already said no. Because non-payment on a life insurance policy is just the first requirement for a life insurance company to deny a claim for lack of policy premium payment. The next two steps are for the life insurance company to do–and we see them fail to do it as legally required, over and over.

Part of the reason for this is that California has particular two steps required of the life insurance company. The life insurance companies fought these two additional requirements for years. But the big development in California is that the companies lost this fight. The life insurance companies are required to do these two additional steps. We make sure that they do, and this usually results in the payment of the life insurance policy.

These two steps require the life insurance company to give the right notice, in clear legally described language, to the right people, at the right time. Only after doing all this right, can the life insurance company then do the second step, which is the notice that the policy is not going to pay. These are the responsibilities of the life insurance company to do, at the right times.

Part of our work, as your life insurance lawyers, is to focus on every step that the life insurance company is required to do. The life insurance company has to send the rights notice at the right time. The notice has to go to the correct address. Sometimes there is even another person who much receive additional notice on the policy. That notice must state the correct amount that is due and when it was due. The life insurance company must give enough notice for the additional grace period for receiving the overdue payment. During all this time, even if the correct first notice has been given, the policy is still in force. We see many life insurance companies fail to follow the California laws, and instead work under the laws of other states–which can be very different.

We have seen life insurance companies fail to account correctly for the payments to date. Sometimes the life insurance companies add additional bogus charges and fees, that are simply not a part of the life insurance contract. Those charges and fees can deplete the amount of premium dollars available for the policy payment. We have seen those charges cause the policy to appear to be in “non-payment” or “underpayment” phases. The life insurance, when dealing with a California insured, has to calculate the lapse warning days correctly, and update the policy to the correct number of days, even if the life insurance policy states a shorter time. California state law is supreme over the actual words of the life insurance policy, if there is a shorter time stated in the policy. The lapse notice cannot be confusing or unclear, or in type that is too small. Even if the policyholder or the insured has passed away, if you are the beneficiary, we can enforce these requirements for you, against the life insurance company.

One of the special California requirements is that the life insurance company must send notice of the lapse before it occurs. California requires notice to the insured or policyholder, not just a letter after a lapse has happened. The requirement of notice, and the timing required, is a special requirement that life insurance companies operating from headquarters outside of California may easily miss. We won’t miss the requirement.

Another requirement of notice is that in California, the life insurance company must give notice that an additional notice may be requested to be provided to a person, in addition to the insured or policyholder. If there is a notice requirement to another person or company, that notice must also be given, in just the right way, for the life insurance company to fulfill its legal obligation to give the right notice. This is very important, because we see many cases where the life insurance policyholder or insured becomes ill, either at home or then is admitted to the hospital, and is unable to take care of their ordinary business–like paying their life insurance bill. If there is not a deposit to the account that pays the life insurance, or pre-paid billing already in place, a life insurance policy may cancel or lapse just because the person has become ill. (We have other ways of reviewing the life insurance policy about what is supposed to happen when there is a hospitalization or serious illness that causes a premium to go unpaid–don’t give up!). The notice to a second person is an important requirement that can be missed by a life insurance company that is rushing to lapse a policy.

If a insurance company violates the California law and regulations about life insurance policy lapse in California, the company must pay the claim, even if they have previously denied your claim due to lapse or non-payment of the policy. If a life insurance claim is denied due to lapse in California, it is important to have a consultation with a life insurance attorney experienced in this area of law. We are the most experienced, California life insurance attorneys, who have actually (previously) helped to write the policies. We have handled and won life insurance lapse cases in California and will aggressively fight for you to be paid, even if the life insurance company has already denied your claim saying the policy was unpaid and lapsed.

As Your Life Insurance Attorneys Now, This is How We Work

We work now on your claim, and many times can get claims paid quickly, in a matter of months, or sooner, depending on the facts and how wrong the life insurance company is about your claim. We help you get all the information you have to us, without a burden on you. We start with the life insurance company now, getting them to provide the required information to us. We work like super accountants, to review how and when the life insurance company received every penny on the account, and when the life insurance did with the money. We check every notice the life insurance company sent, and show what they failed to do correctly. We don’t let the claims adjusters double-talk and happy-talk us; we get to the life insurance company lawyers and senior managers. We show them what the life insurance company did wrong, and how they need to pay, now.

Some Life Insurance Company that We Know Have Lapse Problems in California

We beat life insurance companies so much that they usually require us to sign confidentiality agreements. We can’t name names and amounts of companies. These life insurance companies don’t want to admit in public that we have made them pay lots of life insurance policies–after the life insurance company has sent a lapse letter stating that they denied the claim. But we can say that these companies generally, and other, too–have lapse problems in California (and some other states) and that we can really push your claim to payment if these lapse problems happened to you.

We have successfully recovered denied life insurance claims due to lapse and non-apyment in California from these and many additional life insurance companies:

• AARP Life Insurance / New York Life
• North American Company for Life and Health Insurance
• Genworth Life Insurance Company
• Protective Life Insurance Company
• Minnesota Life Insurance Company
• Monumental Life Insurance Company
• MetLife Insurance Company
• Transamerica Life Insurance Company, Transamerica Premier Life Insurance Company
• Voya Life Insurance Company

If a California life insurance company denied your claim due to a policy lapse, call our experienced California life insurance attorneys today for a free consultation.

Yes, if you have reasonable grounds to believe that the person the life insurance company shows as the beneficiary is not the person intended by the insured. The first question is what do the records of the life insurance company show? Who is the named beneficiary? When were they named? Was the insured person capable of knowing what they were doing? Did someone force the insured person to make a change that was not really the insured’s person intent? There are other questions and considerations, too. We have seen it all.

What you need to do if someone is disputing that you are the beneficiary. You should be sure to make your claim for the benefits. You should follow up on your claim, and insist that it be paid. If the life insurance company has received another claim, from another person, it may file an interpleader complaint. An interpleader complaint is the process the life insurance company uses to have a judge decide who is the lawful beneficiary. An interpleader is a legal process–actually a lawsuit brought by the insurance company–so the judge hears all the evidence and decides for the insurance company. But as a lawsuit, you need a sharp life insurance lawyer to get all the evidence that is needed, and get it admitted into evidence, so you get the right decision.

If you are not listed with the life insurance company as the beneficiary, the company might not even talk to you about it. If you meet the wall of confidentiality and privacy, you really need an experienced life insurance attorney to help you, now. Even if a beneficiary designation has been lost or rejected by the company, if the company’s computer system doesn’t list you, they might not talk to you at all. Even if you are the son or daughter of the insured person. Just getting the facts and real answers from the life insurance company can take a lawyer.

If you are going to dispute a beneficiary, carefully consider the evidence that may be available to support your dispute. Who has that evidence? Who is a strong witness? What would the doctors say? There are many different possible sources of evidence, depending on what you believe was the wrong that was done. It takes a very aggressive life insurance attorney to be able to gather the necessary evidence, and to bring it to Court, in a way that will win.

Disputing a life insurance beneficiary is possible but you need the right facts. Sometimes, these facts can come from a doctor who reviews medical records. Just getting the right medical records can take a lawyer’s work. Sometimes, you need to get other people, witnesses, to talk to an investigator and make a statement. Sometimes, we work with handwriting and computer experts to see if certain documents are even properly signed by the person. There can be other parts of our investigation, too. Because we worked for life insurance companies, and know just how they manage claims, we are the best choice for you. We will know what to do to help your claim, and we will take action, now.

Yes, but you need a very aggressive life insurance lawyer to do it. Life insurance companies have been in business a long time and have lots of lawyers working for them. They are huge companies. They have lots of experience in not paying claims. If a life insurance company has denied your claim, or delayed your claim, get us on your side. If the life insurance company is investigating but has not paid, you may need us to sue the company, to get them to pay. If the life insurance company says the life insurance policy was cancelled, so there are no benefits due, we may be able to help. Sometimes it takes a lawsuit and a lawyer that the life insurance company knows from other cases, to get that claim paid.

Remember, the life insurance company does not want to pay your claim. These claims are very expensive, compared the cost of the life insurance policy. The life insurance company expects only a few of the policies to really ever have claims made. Only a part of those claims does it expect to ever pay. The life insurance company will do more to not pay a claim than it ever did to sell a policy. Our clients are often surprised by the intense questioning that the claims adjuster or investigator will put them through. None of our clients expect the many questions and requests for all sorts of documents that are required in a claim. If the life insurance company really sees a chance to not pay a claim, their focus on not paying that claim goes way up.

Because life insurance claims are relatively rare, few regular people have much experience with them. Look at what you have suddenly found yourself involved in–a disputed life insurance claim. You are not at your best–you have lost a loved one. Whether sudden or the result of a long illness, the loss of a loved one is difficult. You cannot overestimate the experience of the life insurance company in investigating and denying life insurance claims. When you hear that a life insurance company has been in business for 150 years, remember, they have been denying claims for 149 years. Life insurance companies are staffed by long term employees who are trained in how to find a reason to not pay.

Life insurance companies keep detailed files on all the ways they are investigating the claim, and you, to see if the payment is required. They have lots of questions for you. They have many needs for all sorts of different documents. They have investigators on staff. They have medical doctors working for them, to review records. But the biggest fear they have: they don’t want you to sue them using an experienced life insurance attorney, like us, who knows how to understand what they are really doing. The life insurance company is very good at making their own self interests look like they are doing a fair job. Most attorneys won’t know how to show the real motive of the life insurance company–to not pay your claim. Because we have worked so much for insurance companies in the past, and know how they think and what they look for, we can see if they were really doing their job, or if they need to be sued, because they are really just trying to not pay, and to blame it somehow on you–or your passed away loved one.

You can sue a life insurance company. But you need a sharp life insurance lawyer like us to work it for you. Life insurance company’s build their files to support their actions. Even if the life insurance company has delayed your claim, investigated things that just don’t matter, or denied the claim. The company has lots of documents showing how what they did seemed reasonable, and even required under the contract. Your lawyer needs to be experienced reading these files and knowing what is really going on at the life insurance company. There are lots of costs in a life insurance case. You need a successful lawyer to be able to support those costs, to get your case to where you can win. The last thing you need is an inexperienced lawyer, or someone who doesn’t have many years of experience with life insurance companies. This is why you need a strong and aggressive life insurance lawyer like us to handle your claim.

Life insurance companies need specific evidence that supports a legal justification to not pay a claim. Even if a life insurance company is suspicious of a claim, it must pay. Even if the life insurance company lacks some of the information that the company has asked for, it must pay. A hunch or mistrust is not enough of a reason to justify not paying a claim. If a life insurance refuses to pay a claim, a life insurance lawyer can sometimes force the insurance company to make a different decision, to pay.

If a claim takes too long, to our clients that is the same as a claim denied. A claim delayed is a claim denied, we always say. If the life insurance company just doesn’t want to pay the claim–but knows it doesn’t really have enough evidence to deny the claim–the investigation may just drag on and on. Usually, the life insurance company will keep asking for information, and at some point, most people will either need to do too much work to get the information. Or maybe they just don’t know how to get the information requested, and they think without it, the claim is done. The life insurance company will say, “oh, they never provided the information requested, so we did not pay” even though what really happened is that the person got worn out. We are here to help, because we will help get the necessary information. We won’t let your claim be delayed as way of never paying the claim.

Another way life insurance companies refuse to pay a claim is to investigate for too long. The life insurance company will say that they are “seeking medical records” and just never seem to get those records. So they don’t complete the claim, and they don’t pay. Or the life insurance company asks for other information, like the names of witnesses, or documents that you just don’t have. The response to the request for information is not received, and the life insurance company doesn’t pay. Just like a denial, but without a denial.

A life insurance policy is a special kind of contract–where the life insurance company is really trusted to do its part of the bargain. Especially because a life insurance policy pays after the person has passed away, law supports the payment of a life insurance claim. There is even a public interest in claims being paid. If a life insurance company chooses to deny a claim, it needs a strong explanation of why. That explanation needs to justify the life insurance company breaching the contract.

Sometimes, the life insurance company tries to refund the premiums, and pretend the policy was never even purchased. That is called rescission, or to rescind, the life insurance policy. Rescission requires strong evidence of a misrepresentation by the insured, on the application. People are surprised when they get a check from the life insurance company for much less than the benefits.

Principal Financial Life Insurance Company is the life insurance part of the Principal Financial Group. Principal is a big company that handles it life insurance claims out of Des Moines, Iowa. Principal sells big life insurance policies both through employers, creating ERISA issues, and through agents, which are individual policies.

Principal Life will investigate the big four life insurance claim questions. Was the policy paid for? Was the beneficiary clearly stated? Was the death within two years of the policy starting? Were drugs or alcohol involved? There are some differences between life insurance claims on policies through work and those people buy directly from the company. We know the differences and will be sure the Principal doesn’t get into areas that are not fair for investigation.

We have seen Principal obtain lots of past medical records, when investigating a life insurance claim. Principal, like other life insurance companies, gets lots of medical records. The insurance company is looking for some medical test or doctor note that shows a condition that the person did not talk about in the application. A life insurance policy application has many questions about medical history. If the life insurance company can find something that they think is not the same as on the application–they call it a misrepresentation–and use that to rescind the policy. What is policy rescission–it is like the policy never happened. If you get a medical records authorization as part of a life insurance investigation, this indicates there may be possibility the policy will be voided.

Principal, like the other large insurance companies selling to many people in California, will check to see that the policy premiums have been paid. While that sounds simple, sometimes it is not. If your loved one paid for the insurance through their work, but got sick or left the employer, there is a certain amount of time the policy may continue. There is right to convert the policy to an individual policy. An individual policy, where your insured bought the insurance through an agent, will have clearer requirements for payment and cancellation. Cancellation of a life insurance policy for non-payment, especially in California, requires very specific notice and timing. If your insured one passed close to the time of the cancellation, you should have us review that timing. There are times that the life insurance company gets it wrong, or has not done what it must do, and we have gotten life insurance claims paid even when the life insurance company says it was too late.

Principal will really look for exclusions in the life insurance policy contract, especially if there was an accident involving alcohol or drugs. If your insured has life insurance policy language about the involvement of alcohol, it is very important to have a qualified life insurance lawyer look at the policy and the facts. We have had claims where the insurance company denied the policy on the basis of an illegal “drug” use but the testing was not specific enough. Because of the type of testing done, we proved that the result could have been from an ordinary medication. Our client was paid the policy benefits. There are many other specifics about testing for alcohol and drugs that may change what a life insurance does with their first reaction–to not pay the claim.

Principal is a publicly traded stock company which may create financial pressures for it. Even though Principal has more than $800 billion assets, and about $15 billion in revenues, they can investigate life insurance claims closely. Even the largest of life insurance companies, like Principal Life, will investigate these big four life insurance claim questions hard. If you have a claim with Principal, and it is not simply paid quickly, you should contact us to have a free consultation and review about all the particulars of your claim.