A beneficiary may file death claim beyond prescribed period INSURANCE INSIGHTS
IN life insurance policies, when the insured meets his or her demise, the designated beneficiaries will eventually file a claim against the life insurance policy.
The rules and instructions about when and how to file a claim are commonly declared on the insurance policy document. Moreover, insurance companies are now even utilizing the internet and the digital space to serve their clients better. Insurance companies’ websites usually contain a set of detailed step-by-step procedures on how and when to file an insurance claim.
For instance, it is essential that the beneficiary contacts or notifies the insurance company within a specified period agreed upon by the insured and the insurance company, usually three or five months, about the death of the insured through some means. Some insurance companies require written notice, while some allow notification by the beneficiary to the deceased insured’s insurance agent or financial advisor. The notice may also be relayed to the insurance company by visiting one of its nearest branches, calling the company’s phone number, sending an e-mail to the company, or direct mailing the notice. Nowadays, insurance companies already provide a “
form on their websites, which the claimant-beneficiary can download and easily fill-up and submit, along with the death certificate and other required documents.
But all these presume that the claimantbeneficiary knows about the insurance policy that the insured obtained, and made him or her the beneficiary.
What if the beneficiary does not have any idea that he or she is a beneficiary of a certain life insurance policy? Will the lapse of the specified period of filing a claim disallow the beneficiary of his or her right to file a claim against the life insurance policy?
Suppose a son obtained a life insurance policy by opening a savings account at a certain bank as part of a product marketing offered by the bank and the insurance company and wrote down the name of his mother as his beneficiary. However, he was not able to inform his mother about it. Later, the son has an accident that untimely took his life. The grieving mother then asks a close aide to withdraw her son’s savings from the said bank for his funeral. After a year or so, a relative found out about the son’s life insurance policy and informed the mother. Upon learning of this fact, the mother then filed a claim against the insurance company. But the latter denied the claim because the period of filing a written notice of claim, which is 90 days from the death of the insured as stipulated in the contract, had already lapsed. (
GR 205026, March 16, 2016.)
Is there a valid ground for the insurance company to deny the claim of the mother as a beneficiary?
There is none. According to the Supreme Court, the mother who did not know of the insurance contract’s existence cannot be bound by the 90-day rule of filing a written notice of claim from the death of the insured. As an agent of the insurance company in selling its products, the bank should have informed the mother of the existence of the policy, especially when it had the chance to do so when the mother’s aide came to the bank to withdraw the son’s savings. Thus, the denial of the claim was invalid.
The example above is from a specific jurisprudence that presents an important case when the beneficiary had no previous knowledge of his or her right to file a claim against an insurance policy, but can do so despite the lapse of the specified period. Nevertheless, such a lack of knowledge on the part of the beneficiary must be substantiated with enough evidence.