Life Insurance Lawyers of Boonswang Law Fighting for You

The Life Insurance Lawyers of Boonswang Law Resolve Life Insurance Disputes and Get Claims Paid

No Cost Until You, The Beneficiary, Receive Your Life Insurance Claim Payout

Get Your Free Case Evaluation. No Fee Unless You Win

No Cost Until You, The Beneficiary, Receives Your Death Benefit

For over 20 years, our team of life insurance attorneys has helped beneficiaries receive the life insurance benefits they are owed.

A life insurance policy is purchased to protect families from financial hardship, ensure dependents do not suffer because of an untimely death, or make it possible for co-owners of a business to continue operations after the loss of a partner.

Unfortunately, sometimes life insurance policies do not fulfill any of these promises. You need adequate legal representation and experienced life insurance lawyers to fight against the non-payment of your benefits.

Life insurance companies often fail to pay the benefits owed under life insurance policies. Such practices are wrong, illegal, and you do not have to stand for it.

Was your life insurance claim wrongfully denied? Call us. Our life insurance attorneys have appealed more life insurance denials than any other law firm in the country, and we have a reputation for getting our clients paid.

When you entrust your appeal of the claim denial to the life insurance lawyers at Boonswang Law, know that we will:

Take care of the entire claim denial appeals process for you.
Review the reasons for the claim denial.
Review all of the policy documents, including the initial application and medical questionnaire.
Investigate the facts underlying the reasons for the claim denial.
Push the insurance company to pay out or settle with you.

We are well-versed in all of the nuances of life insurance law. Our experience has allowed us to recover tens of millions of dollars for our beneficiary clients over the years. Let us help you get the life insurance benefits you are owed!

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Unpaid Life Insurance Benefits?

Our Life Insurance Attorneys Help You Fight Your Life Insurance Claim Denial

Can life insurance companies refuse to pay a claim? Yes, and they often do.

Why would an insurance company deny a claim? Because insurance companies only make money when they don’t pay death benefits!

This practice only serves the shareholders and unjustly thwarts the insured’s intent to provide financial security for their loved ones. Denying death benefit claims also adds to the burden of the insured’s beneficiaries, who are already suffering from grief over their loss.

It is all too common for companies to deny life insurance claims without bothering to investigate the facts underlying the initial reason for denial. It is just not in their interest to do so. In this case, you need the experienced insurance attorneys at Boonswang Law.

At Boonswang Law, we fight insurance companies on your behalf. And if it turns out the insurance company wrongfully delayed payment or delayed payment in bad faith, we can even help you get interest on the amount of the claim.

Here’s How It’s Supposed to Work:

The life insurance policyholder pays monthly premiums to the life insurance company to maintain the terms of their life insurance contract
When the person passes on, the beneficiary listed on the life insurance policy is supposed to receive a life insurance benefits from the life insurance company

Many life insurance companies do everything possible to make money by collecting premiums and avoiding paying out claims.

Some beneficiaries do not receive payment from the life insurance companies, or their legitimate claims are unjustly delayed.

Unfortunately, this means that many families who have lost loved ones not only have to contend with their devastating loss but also with the stress of dealing with a life insurance company that is unfairly denying payment to a beneficiary.

Contact Our Team of Life Insurance Lawyers Today

Has your loved one’s life insurance death benefits claim been denied? Contact us for a free consultation at Boonswang Law.

Our life insurance lawyers have helped clients like you recover the funds they legally deserve from insurance companies. If you don’t receive the full amount from the policy that’s due, there is no fee for us. We are here to help you.

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What to Expect from Our Team of Life Insurance Attorneys

Upon acceptance of your case, our team of experienced life insurance attorneys will:

Review policy terms and provisions to determine coverage and exclusions
Review denial letters and correspondence from an insurer to identify reasons for a delay or denial
Negotiate with your insurer to get you a payout on a life insurance policy when there is a dispute
Pursue a claim in court against an insurer that is acting unreasonably or dishonestly in delaying or denying the payment of a valid life insurance policy
Investigate claims and allegations made by an insurer in denying a policy to refute or cast doubt on those claims

Insurance companies are staffed by experts, consultants, and lawyers who look out for the insurer’s profit margin. The more premiums an insurer collects and the less benefits the insurer pays, the better the company does. The insurer’s interests are at odds with yours, and you need your own advocate looking out for you as you make your claim after a death.

Our Life Insurance Lawyers Know the Common Dishonest Tactics Life Insurance Companies Use

Understanding the dishonest tactics of insurance companies is important, as you’lll know if you need legal help due to an unfairly denied life insurance claim. Insurance companies sometimes employ bad faith tactics to delay or deny valid life insurance claims.

Here are just a few methods life insurance companies use to try to avoid paying out death benefits:

Misrepresentation: Even though a policyholder pays monthly premiums for life insurance, their family or beneficiaries can be denied a life insurance payment if the insurer claims misrepresentation. An experienced life insurance attorney will recognize the weakness of their argument and can fight back on your behalf.

Self-Inflicted Injuries: Insurance companies may deny life insurance payments by claiming the injury was self-inflicted.
Retroactive Cancellation: Insurance companies may cancel a policy retroactively to ensure the claim doesn’t get paid or look for ways to contest coverage so the beneficiary is deprived of the death benefit. Again, our firm has handled countless cases involving retroactive cancellation, and we can help you.

These illegitimate practices are common, and all too often, insurance companies aren’t held accountable. Those who may have been depending on the insurance company to pay the death benefit so they can pay their bills and start a new life could be left with nothing. Contact us today, and don’t give up on getting what you deserve.

Our Life Insurance Clients’ Most Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Divorce and remarriage often leave current and former spouses without the death benefit they expected. If your partner’s ex-spouse is trying to claim their death benefit, a life insurance lawyer can help you fight to recover your rightful share of your spouse’s insurance policy.

Insurance companies will try to get out of paying claims whenever they can, and they won’t make it easy to claim a policy that has lapsed. However, it may still be possible. Some policies have clauses that waive premiums if a person becomes disabled.

Other times, premiums missed in the last few months of life because of severe illness can be excused by a grace period, especially of the policyholder was a long-time client of the insurer. While nothing can be guaranteed when dealing with insurance companies, a life insurance lawyer can fight to recover benefits even if premium payments were missed and a policy lapsed.

The policyholder is well within their rights to change beneficiaries at will so long as they are alive, of sound mind, and not under duress. The only exceptions are those designated irrevocable beneficiaries.

This status is often granted to children and spouses, and neither divorce nor estrangement changes this status. An irrevocable beneficiary must consent to any changes to the policy that affect their benefits and, depending on the policy terms, any changes to the policy at all.

If you were named as an irrevocable beneficiary, but the insurance company says you were removed from the policy, this change can almost certainly be contested.

Fraud in the form of last-minute beneficiary changes often happens to senior citizens suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia, who are tricked into signing papers they couldn’t possibly understand to name a distant relative or a caretaker as a primary beneficiary. Such fraudulent changes can be contested.

Generally, only the policyholder can change or designate beneficiaries. Some power of attorney documents allow agents of the policyholder to make such decisions, but doing so would bring sharp scrutiny to the agent if their decision is challenged by a former beneficiary or representative of the estate.

Unfortunately, there is no single database of life insurance policies, and many older policies are no longer retained by insurance companies or are buried in decades-old paper files. If you expect your spouse or relative had a life insurance policy but nobody knows the details, the best place to start is their financial records and mail.

There will generally be annual or monthly payment notices, bank statements, and other documents related to the policy, which may indicate where the policy was taken out and other identifying information. You can also check with the Unclaimed Property office in your state.

After a period of time, if no beneficiary can be found and the deceased had no will or estate plan, their death benefit will be sent to the agency in your state that handles unclaimed property. If you can prove your relationship to the deceased, you may be able to claim the benefit with the help of a life insurance lawyer.

To find out if a life insurance policy was paid out, you will need contact information for the insurance company and personal identifying information about the deceased. However, insurance companies generally do not provide that information to non-beneficiaries.

If you believe you are owed all or a portion of the death benefits, you should contact a life insurance lawyer to assist you in obtaining additional information.

Additionally, the agent who assisted in obtaining the policy can confirm if the policy has been collected. If the answer is yes, but you are a beneficiary and have not received payment, you should contact a life insurance lawyer immediately.

While it’s possible that the policyholder simply changed their beneficiary without telling you, fraud and coercion are also common reasons for unexpected changes to a policy’s beneficiaries.

Most life insurance policies list a beneficiary, but there are several ways a policy could have no beneficiary at the time of the policyholder’s passing. In some cases, the policyholder simply outlives their sole beneficiary. This often happens with widows who never updated their own policy after their spouse died.

Adult children of the deceased are often surprised to find their parent’s policy lists no beneficiary or lists a person who has died as the sole beneficiary. What happens next depends on the policy and state law.

Sometimes either the state law governing the policy or the policy itself will establish an order of succession, starting with the spouse or children of the policyholder. Other policies will send the benefit to the policyholder’s estate. In either case, a life insurance lawyer can help you make a claim if your loved one’s policy lists no beneficiary.

Life insurance money can either be split per capita or per stirpes. If a policyholder has named his beneficiaries to split the proceeds per capita, they each receive a percentage share. A common form of this arrangement would see a wife paid 50% and her adult children each paid 25% of their father’s death benefit.

Awarding beneficiaries per stirpes means benefits are paid out equally to each family branch and its descendants from the percentage allotted to the named beneficiary. Per capita means the children of the named beneficiary receive nothing if they die before the policy is claimed, and the other beneficiaries split their share.

More often, however, the beneficiary designation form on file with the insurance company will indicate exactly how the money will be disbursed and to whom.

No. Only the policyholder (and, in limited cases, their power of attorney) can designate or change the designation of beneficiaries, and they must be alive to do so.

If someone comes forward with paperwork showing a beneficiary designation was changed after the date listed on the policyholder has already passed, you should retain a life insurance lawyer to represent you, as this individual is likely trying to defraud you.

Sometimes, a parent or grandparent will choose to leave their full insurance benefit to just one of their children. It could be a matter of trust, but more often, they took out life insurance after the birth of their first child and never updated the policy.

If, say, a brother was the sole beneficiary but wanted to split his father’s death benefit with his two younger sisters, he could not designate them as beneficiaries; only the policyholder can do that.

However, nothing would stop him from giving a share of his death benefit as a gift to his siblings. A downside to doing this is the possibility the gift to your siblings will create tax liabilities.

With the recent doubling of estate exemptions to $11.4 million for 2019, a federal tax bill is unlikely, but many states may assess a tax on the money as a gift or inheritance. You should consult a financial planning professional for advice if you plan to share your life insurance benefit.

When a minor is named as the beneficiary of a policy, the court will likely appoint someone to act as custodian of the child’s inheritance until they turn 18. However, even if you anticipate this issue and name a custodian, there is little to prevent this individual from using the money as they see fit.

The best way to make a minor your beneficiary is to create a trust and name the child as the beneficiary of the trust. While this permits you much greater control of how your death benefit is spent for your child’s benefit, it creates a complicated tax situation, and an estate planning attorney should be consulted as well.

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Unpaid Life Insurance Benefits?

How Life Insurance Payouts Typically Work

This is how the process of getting a life insurance payout is supposed to work, though life insurance companies may attempt to find reasons to delay or deny your claim. This is especially common when the policy was purchased within the past 2 years.

During the first two years of a life insurance policy, errors, misrepresentations, or omissions can void the life insurance policy altogether, and death by suicide is generally not covered. Within this period, insurers will frequently delay claims to conduct a thorough investigation of the insured’s medical records.

Even outside of this two-year window, life insurance companies may deny your claim due to nonpayment of premiums (see our previous blog post) or for violations of arbitrary, overly specific provisions on the policy. If your claim has been unjustly delayed or denied, it’s prudent to contact an experienced life insurance lawyer for a free initial consultation.

If you’re not sure whether your loved one had life insurance to begin with, there are several options available (see our previous blog post). For instance, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) runs a “Policy Locator Service” in which the NAIC will contact insurance companies on your behalf.

You can also pay private companies such as Policy Inspector to speak directly with insurers and search for a missing policy.

The Life Insurance Claim Process

Step 1: Gather information

The first step in claiming your loved one’s death benefit is to look through their records for information on the policy. It’s helpful to have a complete copy of the policy when filing your claim, but this is not entirely necessary.

Bank statements, updates from the insurance company via mail, and tax documents can all help you gather information about the policy. Employers may also have documentation on any group life insurance policies purchased as part of an employee benefit plan. If nothing else, you should at least know which insurance company to contact.

Step 2: Contact the life insurance company

The next step is to contact the insurance company directly and let them know the insured has passed away. In order to locate the policy, they will need the insured’s date of birth and social security number, and/or the policy number.

They will then send you claim forms and tell you which documents they need to have before processing your claim. If the policy is through an employer, contact the employer’s human resources or benefits department with the information instead of contacting the insurer.

Step 3: Fill out claim forms

The sooner you fill out the claim forms, the sooner the insurance company can process the claim. If you need the death benefit as soon as possible, you’ll want to fill out claim forms shortly after receiving them.

Each insurance company has its own process for claimants, but you will always be required to send a copy of the insured’s death certificate. Insurance companies typically accept claim forms by mail or through an agent, but some also allow claims to be filed online.

Step 4: Wait for a response

Each state has its own rules for when life insurance companies need to pay their claimants. For instance, SC Code § 38-63-80 dictates if an insurer hasn’t processed a claim within 30 days of submission of claim forms, the insurer will also have to pay interest on the death benefit.

Although it doesn’t provide a strict deadline, this statute incentivizes insurance companies to pay within the initial 30-day period. Generally speaking, your claim should be processed and your benefit paid within 1-2 months after submitting the claim forms. Some companies say it takes as little as 10-14 days for the average uncontestable claim.

If your claim is approved, the insurance company will typically provide multiple options for payment. You may elect to receive the benefits all at once in a lump sum payment, or to distribute them out over time through annuities.

Using an annuity system can allow the policy to collect interest, but this interest is generally taxable. A notable exception occurs on policies with spendthrift provisions, in which the insurer holds onto the benefit and distributes it via prespecified installments (see our previous blog post).

Examples of Life Insurance Claims We Have Recovered

Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when the claim was initially denied due to misrepresentation because the fact that she took medication for a heart condition was not disclosed on the application. We were able to show that although the insured disclosed it to the agent, the agent told her that was not important and failed to record it.
Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when the insured was in a coma for over a year prior to death, and the family did not receive the notices of premium due and of lapse of the policy.
Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when her husband named his son as the sole beneficiary. Community property laws in California dictate that the surviving spouse is entitled to half of the death benefit when the premiums are paid with community funds.
Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when the insured’s employer changed the benefit plan but failed to give the insured the required notices of discontinuation or suspension of coverage under ERISA, and the policy was terminated.
Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when the insured was approved for long-term disability benefits, and employment was terminated, but the employer failed to provide the required conversion notices under ERISA.

Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when the agent mistakenly took out two funeral benefit policies for the wife, not one each for the wife and husband, the deceased.
Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when the claim was denied because the application listed the age of the insured as seven years younger than he was.
Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when the daughter of the insured made herself the insured’s power of attorney and changed the life insurance beneficiary to herself.
Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when the insured’s beneficiary designation was “all children of insured,” and one of the children contested the eligibility of our client because she was adopted by the insured.
Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when the insured made mistakes on his application, but those mistakes were not made with intent to deceive and did not have anything to do with the death of the insured.
Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when the claim was denied due to lapse, but the insured was only three days late in paying a premium payment and died only three days later.
Our client’s life insurance claim was paid when the insured died in Ghana, and her claim was delayed two years.

Life Insurance Lawyers of Boonswang Law Fighting for You

The Life Insurance Lawyers of Boonswang Law Resolve Life Insurance Disputes and Get Claims Paid

No Cost Until You, The Beneficiary, Receive Your Life Insurance Claim Payout

Get Your Free Case Evaluation. No Fee Unless You Win

No Cost Until You, The Beneficiary, Receives Your Death Benefit

Ready to Talk to a Lawyer About Your Unpaid Life Insurance Benefits?

Our Life Insurance Attorneys Help You Fight Your Life Insurance Claim Denial

Here’s How It’s Supposed to Work:

Contact Our Team of Life Insurance Lawyers Today

What to Expect from Our Team of Life Insurance Attorneys

Our Life Insurance Lawyers Know the Common Dishonest Tactics Life Insurance Companies Use

Our Life Insurance Clients’ Most Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to Talk to a Lawyer About Your Unpaid Life Insurance Benefits?

How Life Insurance Payouts Typically Work

The Life Insurance Claim Process

Step 1: Gather information

Step 2: Contact the life insurance company

Step 3: Fill out claim forms

Step 4: Wait for a response

Examples of Life Insurance Claims We Have Recovered

Life Insurance Attorneys Serving These States*

Ready to Talk to a Lawyer About Your
Unpaid Life Insurance Benefits?

Ready to Talk to a Lawyer About Your
Unpaid Life Insurance Benefits?