Life Insurance Lawyer Serving NY

Processing a life insurance claim in NY takes between 30 and 60 days. The less time between your claim and the policyholder’s death, the better your chances of receiving death benefits. A NY-based life insurance attorney can review your claim and ensure it’s complete before you file.

When a life insurance claim is denied, the insurance company sends a letter documenting the reason for the denial. Your next step would be to appeal the denial. 

Consulting a NY life insurance lawyer can greatly increase the chances of winning your appeal. An attorney understands the complexities of life insurance law, and can help you navigate them successfully.

Beneficiaries under 18 will be appointed an adult to manage the child’s inheritance until they’re of age. However, custodians may withdraw and spend this inheritance while they have control over it—an unscrupulous custodian could leave a minor beneficiary with little or no inheritance. 

Setting up a trust is the best way to protect beneficiaries under 18. An estate planning attorney can help you establish a trust to ensure your young loved ones receive their full inheritance.

There is no central record of life insurance policyholders, so determining whether your loved one had a life insurance policy could be tricky. 

A few ways to find out include: 

• Contacting their employer
• Looking through mail and personal paperwork
• Review bank statements for premium payments

In NY, beneficiaries must notify the insurance company that the policyholder has died. If you find a life insurance policy, you must contact the insurance company with this information.

Yes. Legally, you can’t add them to the policy as a fellow beneficiary, but how you handle the money you receive is up to you. You can share it with whomever you like.

While the policyholder may change their beneficiaries at any time while they’re alive, it’s against the law for them to do so under compulsion. Death benefits can be contested if the policyholder was not of sound mind or was under suspected coercion. 

The only exceptions are those who have designated irrevocable beneficiaries, such as children or spouses—even in cases of estrangement or divorce. These beneficiaries must approve any changes to the policy that may affect them. 

That means you can contest any changes made to the policy without your approval—provided you are an irrevocable beneficiary.

The answer to this question depends on a wide variety of factors. To find out whether you’re entitled to benefits from a lapsed life insurance policy, you can consult a New York life insurance lawyer like those at Boonswang Law.

The only parties legally allowed to make changes to a life insurance policy are the policyholder or someone with power of attorney. Documentation showing that changes that were made after the policyholder’s death have likely been falsified.

Yes—especially in cases where the policyholder had multiple marriages. A former spouse may dispute a life insurance policy because they feel they’re entitled to certain compensation. The life insurance law team at Boonswang can mediate these disputes and explain what’s owed to each party.