When a life insurance company refuses to pay an accidental death claim, it adds insult to injury. Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance (often called “AD&D Insurance”) exists to pay a benefit when someone dies in a way that you cannot plan for – as a result of an accident. AD&D Insurance companies find creative ways to deny accidental death claims. Watch this video as Life Insurance Attorney John V. Tucker explains some of the reasons why AD&D Insurance Companies deny accidental death claims.
You need to pay attention to the details of the AD&D policy. Some key policy terms include:
- The definition of “accidental death,”and
- Drug and alcohol intoxication exclusions;
- Pre-existing condition exclusions; or
- Medical malpractice exclusions.
Often, AD&D policies have very high payouts, so the insurance company is looking for any way to save money on these claims. Don’t think that a denial means they are right. Often, we are able to help beneficiaries in accidental death claims, because the insurer improperly denies the claim.
To learn more about your rights if an Accidental Death claim was denied, call Life Insurance Attorney John V. Tucker toll free nationwide at (866) 282-5260 or use our online contact form to tell us the details about your claim.
Video TranscriptYour spouse died in an accident but the life insurance company is telling you they don't want to pay the AD&D claim, why would that be? I'm John Tucker I'm an attorney and I handle life insurance and AD&D or accidental death and dismemberment cases all over the country.
Life insurance companies often don't want to pay AD&D claims because they take the position that somebody did not die in an accident. Let me tell you some of the things you need to know about accidental death coverage.
First, the key to most insurance policies is the fine print. I know you've probably heard that before but it really matters. The terms that they use in the policy are what controls the insurance company. In the case of accidental death, there's probably a definition of accident in their policy and how they define accident drives whether they're going to pay the claim or not in almost all of those cases the exclusions.
Second, the exclusions that are in the policy, the extra details that say what they don't cover, are very very important to you. Every policy is drawn differently and there's no law that requires them to include or exclude certain things to insurance companies will write exclusions into their policies for all types of things. If a death was related to use of drugs or alcohol. If a death was because of some type of pre-existing condition. If a death was related to medical malpractice. All of these are exclusions you can find in many accidental death and dismemberment policies.
Finally keep in mind that the insurance company doesn't want to pay the claim if they can avoid it. A lot of accidental death policies have very high benefits, hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, even more. In those cases if the insurance company can save that money, that goes to the bottom line. Money they don't pay you goes to their shareholders because most insurance companies are for-profit corporations now.
You're watching this video probably because you have questions about an accidental death policy. If that's the case, I want you to pick up the phone, call the number on your screen and call me. Let's talk about your claim. I'm John Tucker. Thanks for watching.
