Dad fights for claim
INSURERS REFUSE TO PAY OUT
AMPUMALANGA man has accused two financial institutions of unfairly declining his son’s death claim on the grounds that his policy application forms were never signed.
Phumeza Mashele, 52, says this happened though his son initialled some pages on the form while others were signed.
“Both the signatures and the initials could be easily verified on the forms signed by my son and the agents of both Sanlam and Old Mutual, ” said the father of three.
Before approving the policies, which were worth R500 000 each, Mashele said his son was also urged to take a blood test as a standard requirement to determine his health status. As Mashele’s son is not a minor, he was required to attach his own signature.
He said he was told that this could only be done after he signed his policies, which he took out in 2001.
These agents told me that if my son was HIV-positive his policy would be declined, and he was relieved when he received his policy a few weeks later.
Mashele said his son was shot and killed in 2006.
He said years later when he lodged a claim with both Sanlam and Old Mutual they told him his application forms were incorrectly signed and invalid. They also questioned the son’s death, claiming it was not his body, even though his fingerprints proved true.
Mashele said he took out the policies for his son, who was unemployed at the time.
“In fact, it was a life cover for my entire family, each with their different death cover benefits,” he said.
He said his policy was repudiated after accepting the five-year monthly premiums he had paid without fail.
“Surely they must have noted that this policy was not valid,” he said.
He said their agents, who professed to be well-trained by these institutions, failed to see that the application forms were not signed as required.
Old Mutual is only willing to refund all the premiums he had paid for five years on the policy they failed to validate at the time of inception.
Ingrid Smith of Sanlam said they needed more time to investigate Mashele’s complaint.
Lameez Isaacs, a client service manager at Old Mutual, said it was unfortunate that they discovered at the time of claiming that the policy was not valid.
“The signatures on the two forms were not signed by the same person and an intensive forensic investigation confirmed the deceased did not sign the relevant forms,” he said.
He said this meant there had been no valid contract between Old Mutual and the deceased and they therefore cancelled the policy.