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Discuss Your Life Insurance Claim with a Maryland Life Insurance Lawyer at Boonswang Law

You are a life insurance beneficiary, and you would think life insurance works this way — your loved one purchased a life insurance policy to ensure your financial well-being, they died within the policy term, and you automatically receive the death benefit. 

Unfortunately, it is rarely that easy for a life insurance beneficiary to get their payout. Just like any other business, life insurance companies are motivated to make money for their shareholders. When they collect premium payments and delay or deny claims for death benefits, they are more profitable. For this reason, they often initially deny or delay payment on valid life insurance claims. 

If your life insurance claim was denied or payment is being delayed, the MD life insurance lawyers at Boonswang Law can help you fight back and get your payout. 

Contact us to schedule your free, no-obligation consultation. 

Boonswang Law’ MD Life Insurance Lawyers Have Helped Beneficiaries from these Maryland Cities and the Surrounding Areas:

Discuss Your Life Insurance Claim with a Maryland Life Insurance Lawyer at Boonswang Law

Common Reasons Life Insurance Claims are Denied in Maryland

Lapse Due to Nonpayment of Premiums

In exchange for policyholders’ premium payments, life insurance companies provide coverage. If a policyholder does not pay the premiums as they come due, coverage may lapse and terminate and beneficiaries’ claims will be denied.

You would think that is the end of the story. However, every state regulates the termination of life insurance coverage, and often life insurance companies and employers who provide group life insurance coverage to employees fail to follow those regulations, resulting in nonpayment of premiums that is not the fault of the policyholder. 

If your claim was denied due to lapse, we may be able to investigate further and get you paid. Call us to discuss your claim.

Call Boonswang Law and Talk with an Experienced Maryland Life Insurance Lawyer Today

Our team has been helping life insurance beneficiaries throughout Maryland for decades. Our goal is to get you the death benefits you are entitled to in a timely and efficient manner.

Contact us today for your free, no-obligation consultation. We are ready to fight for you!

Death Due to Self-Inflicted Injuries

“Exclusions” are causes of death that are expressly not covered under a life insurance policy. For example, suicide and death due to terorism or acts of war are common exclusions in life insurance policies. 

If there is even a remote possibility an exclusion can apply to a policyholder’s death, know that the life insurance company will use it to deny your claim. In these cases, we investigate and can often show that the exclusion does not apply, and we get our beneficiary clients paid.

Insufficient Proof of Death

Life insurance companies generally delay payment on claims for death benefits when a policyholder dies overseas because of a delay in receiving a death certificate, or because a foreign death certificate contains insufficient information regarding the policyholder’s death.

If the life insurance company is delaying payment on your life insurance claim for this reason, contact us. We can help — and the life insurance company may owe you interest!

Retroactive Cancellation of Policy Due to Alleged Misrepresentation

Policyholders who are at greater risk of dying during the policy term pay higher premiums than those who are less at risk. The life insurance company calculates that risk by factoring in things like a policyholder’s age, weight, occupation, health and medical conditions, and lifestyle habits like drinking alcohol or smoking. 

If a policyholder omits information or makes a mistake on the initial application for life insurance or the medical questionnaire, the insurance company can allege that they misrepresented themselves in order to get a lower premium payment and then deny your claim.

Call us if your claim was denied due to misrepresentation. In many cases, we can settle with the insurance company for an amount that is the death benefit minus what the policyholder would have paid in premiums had the mistake or omission not occurred.

Insurance Scams & Bad Faith: What to Watch Out For

Unscrupulous insurers may sometimes resort to practices that are unethical or illegal, leaving policyholders in unfortunate positions. Insurance scams and instances of bad faith can lead to an unanticipated denial of benefits or a policy that doesn’t provide the expected protection. Here’s a quick overview of some of the most common scams.

Indexed Universal Life Insurance

Indexed universal life (IUL) insurance can be a legitimate product, offering the potential for higher yields tied to stock market performance. However, it can also be a breeding ground for misrepresentation. 

Sellers might highlight the policy’s potential gains while downplaying the terms, fees, and potential risky outcomes. If an insurance agent is pressuring you without providing comprehensive information, you might be facing this type of scam. A trusted life insurance attorney can help transparently review any policy to help you make your own decision.

Churning Scams

Churning refers to the act of a life insurance agent persuading a client to unnecessarily cancel, surrender, or modify their current policy to sell them a new one, typically for the sole purpose of generating commissions. 

Not only is this unethical, but can also result in financial loss for policyholders due to new contestability periods, surrender charges, or lost benefits. If you suspect you’ve been a victim of a churning scam, a life insurance lawyer can help uncover the truth and seek appropriate compensation.

Insurance Bad Faith

Insurance companies are obligated to treat policyholders fairly and in good faith. However, sometimes they fail to uphold this duty. Bad faith insurance practices may include unreasonable delays in processing claims, denial of claims without a valid reason, or failure to conduct a comprehensive investigation into a claim. 

If an insurance company acts in bad faith, policyholders have the right to take legal action.

What You Can Expect Working with Boonswang Law’s Experienced Maryland Life Insurance Lawyers

You probably have never worked with a life insurance lawyer before. Here’s what we do for our beneficiary clients, among other things:

  • We will review the policy terms and provisions to determine coverage and exclusions, and explain these to you
  • We will review the denial letter and any other correspondence from the life insurance company 
  • We will thoroughly investigate claims made by the life insurance company in order to refute those claims
  • We will negotiate with the life insurance company’s lawyers to get you a payout 
  • We will vigorously litigate your claim in court when the life insurance company refuses to settle

Keep in mind that in order to protect their bottom line, life insurance companies employ a team of experts, consultants, and lawyers looking for ways to delay payment of claims or deny claims outright. In other words, the interests of the life insurance company are at odds with yours and with the policyholder’s.

You can count on the Maryland life insurance lawyers at Boonswang Law to fight back to get you the death benefits you were meant to receive.

MD Life Insurance FAQ

Who Can Change a Life Insurance Beneficiary Designation?

Only the policyholder, and only while they are of sound mind.

If you suspect a beneficiary change was made fraudulently or under duress, you can contest it. Fraud cases are very difficult to prove, so be sure to contact an experienced life insurance beneficiary attorney for help litigating this.

No! If the beneficiary designation was changed after the date of the policyholder’s death, that change was fraudulent. Contact an experienced life insurance beneficiary attorney immediately.

A minor cannot directly receive life insurance death benefits. In these cases, a court will have to appoint a conservator to administer the funds on behalf of the minor beneficiary. Unfortunately, there is little to prevent a conservator from using the funds for their own benefit.

If a policyholder wants a minor to receive the death benefit, they should set up a trust with the minor as beneficiary of the trust, and name the trust as beneficiary of the life insurance policy. This way, they can select who will act as trustee.

If the primary beneficiary died before the policyholder, the life insurance company will pay the death benefit to the secondary beneficiary or the contingent beneficiary. If the policyholder did not designate secondary or contingent beneficiaries, the death benefit can be paid to the policyholder’s estate.

Yes, if they were supposed to be the named beneficiary for any reason and someone else was named instead. 

Contact us if you were supposed to be a beneficiary on a life insurance policy – we can help you.

You should contest denial of your claim. Why? Because life insurance companies frequently deny valid claims in order to make money for their shareholders. When you receive the denial letter you should also receive documents explaining how to contest the denial with the life insurance company. 

Call us if you need to contest denial of your life insurance claim – we can help you fight back.

Maybe, but you must contest the denial. 

If the lapse was not the fault of the policyholder, it is possible to still get a payout if, for example, an employer failed to give the policyholder conversion papers or improperly administered the policy, or the life insurance company failed to send the policyholder any of the lapse notices that are required under the law.

Call our MD life insurance lawyers if your life insurance claim was denied due to lapse. We will investigate and get you paid if at all possible.

There is no list or database of all life insurance policyholders, unfortunately. If you suspect a loved one had a life insurance policy but don’t know for sure, you will have to dig around for evidence. 

The contents of a safe-deposit box or your loved one’s desk drawers might give you a clue. You can also look through your loved one’s recent mail for premium notices, and look through bank account statements for evidence of premium payments.

A life insurance company should pay the beneficiary within 30-60 days of the claim being submitted. 

If this time has passed and your claim has not been paid yet, contact us. When a life insurance company unreasonably delays payment on a life insurance claim, they may owe you interest on the death benefit.

If the delay is unreasonable, meaning, the life insurance company had no valid reason for waiting to pay your claim, you may be entitled to interest on the death benefit. Call us to discuss your case.