Life Insurance Lawyer Arkansas
Our Arkansas life insurance lawyers are here to help.
If you believe that the beneficiary designation was changed without your knowledge or consent, you may need to take legal action to obtain information from the insurance company and challenge the beneficiary designation if necessary. It is important to consult with an attorney who is experienced in handling life insurance beneficiary disputes to determine the best course of action.
The insurance company has a duty to protect the privacy of its policyholders and beneficiaries, but they are also obligated to provide information about the policy and the claims process to the appropriate parties. If you are the policyholder or a designated beneficiary, you have the right to request information about the policy and the claims process, and the insurance company should provide you with the necessary information.
If the insurance company is not responding to your requests for information, you may need to escalate the matter to a supervisor or file a complaint with the appropriate regulatory agency. It is important to be persistent and take appropriate action to protect your rights and interests in the policy.
Call us at 800-330-2274 for a free consultation.
Life Insurance Beneficiary Rules and Disputes Arkansas
2023-2024 Life Insurance Claims in Arkansas Recently Settled
- United Republic prescription drugs $75,000.00
- Transamerica coronavirus denial $149,000.00
- First National Life medical records $82,000.00
- COVID-19 denial due to exclusion $40,000.00
- Provident autoerotic asphyxiation $98,000.00
- Progressive contestable delay $223,000.00
- Guarantee pneumonia exclusion $88,000.00
- AETNA in commission of felony $51,000.00
- Navy Mutual suicide exclusion $301,500.00
- Progressive Life interpleader $205,100.00
- Ohio National four month delay $76,900.00
- AD&D claim denied we won $622,000.00
- Genworth cancer medical records $50,000.00
- Amica Life illegal drug denial $170,000.00
- Gerber Life life insurance claim delay $11,000.00
- SGLI claim denied settled $400,000.00
- Accidental Death & Dismemberment $800,000.00
- The Hartford sickness exclusion $16,500.00
- Denial of FEGLI claim overturned $350,000.00
- First Capital Life denial of benefits resolved $27,000.00
- Mid-Continental life sickness exclusion $303,800.00
- Legion Life felony exclusion crime $249,000.00
- Liberty Life accidental death case resolved $307,000.00
- Fayetteville claim involving foreign death $800,000.00
- American Income Life alcohol exclusion $514,300.00
- Liberty Mutual Life beneficiary dispute $252,000.00
- Denied FEGLI claim resolved $183,000.00
- VGLI claim resolution beneficiaries $400,000.00
- Arkansas denied life insurance claim $625,000.00
- Little Rock denial of benefits mistake $519,000.00
- Mass Mutual Life prescription drug $218,200.00
- Conway last minute beneficiary change $817,000.00
- TSGLI claim settled within a couple weeks $18,000.00
- Denied SGLI claim resolved $402,500.00
- Globe Life medical record problem $102,100.000
- Bad faith life insurance in Fort Smith $369,000.00
- Lincoln Heritage Life divorce resolved $231,700.00
- Fort Smith fraud alleged plaintiff won $579,000.00
- Monumental Life denial sickness exclusion $125,000.00
- Denied AD&D claim that we won $504,600.00
- Denied life insurance claim Arkansas $500,000.00
- Aflac Life interpleader lawsuit won $250,000.00
- SGLI claim with competing beneficiaries $400,000.00
- Arkansas life insurance lawyer won case $764,000.00
- Conway invalid beneficiary designation $538,000.00
- United of Omaha undue influence $113,200.00
- Voya Life three exclusions overcome $101,000.00
- Springdale mistake on the application $889,000.00
- Aetna Life accident death denial $203,000.00
- Arkansas ERISA life insurance claim $312,000.00
- Reliastar Life suicide exclusion $107,300.00
- Veterans Life insurance claim $300,000.00
- Arkansas bad faith life insurance claim $892,000.00
- Jonesboro dangerous activity exclusion $476,000.00
- Gerber no beneficiary on record won $120,000.00
- Farmers Life denial due to divorce $241,200.00
- Jackson Life autoerotic asphyxiation $108,500.00
- FEGLI appeal won by our plaintiff $153,000.00
Interpleader Lawyer Arkansas
A life insurance interpleader is a legal process in which an insurance company initiates a lawsuit to determine the rightful beneficiary of a life insurance policy when there is uncertainty or dispute among multiple claimants. The insurance company essentially asks the court to decide who is entitled to receive the proceeds of the policy.
Here's an example scenario:
Let's say John, an elderly man, has a life insurance policy with his daughter, Sarah, listed as the beneficiary. However, in the final days of his life, John makes a last-minute beneficiary change on the policy, naming his caregiver, Emily, as the new beneficiary. After John's passing, both Sarah and Emily claim to be the rightful beneficiary of the life insurance policy.
Sarah argues that she has been the intended beneficiary for years and that John may have been coerced or not in the right state of mind to make such a significant change to the policy. On the other hand, Emily claims that John made the change willingly and that she provided care and support to him during his final days, which prompted his decision.
Since there is a dispute between the two potential beneficiaries, the insurance company may choose to file a life insurance interpleader lawsuit. This legal action would involve the court reviewing evidence from both sides and making a determination on who should receive the proceeds of the policy. The court would consider factors such as the timing of the beneficiary change, John's mental capacity at the time, any evidence of coercion or undue influence, and the nature of the relationship between John and Emily.
Ultimately, the court's decision would resolve the dispute and determine which party is entitled to the life insurance proceeds. The interpleader process helps ensure that the funds are distributed fairly and in accordance with the deceased's wishes or legal requirements.
Arkansas Life Insurance Law
Life insurance seems like a very comforting concept to most people. So long as a policyholder pays her premiums during her lifetime, then her beneficiaries are guaranteed a lucrative death benefit at the time of her death. Those payouts are often intended as “life or death” financial security nets for those left behind when a loved one dies.
What many consumers do not understand, however, is that when a policyholder dies, the insurance company’s lawyers are immediately dispatched to try to find a reason why the policyholder’s death is not covered by the policy terms. They do this because life insurance companies do not make money by simply paying claims when someone dies. To the contrary, they make money by collecting the maximum amount from policyholder premiums, only to find a technicality that allows them to deny paying out valid claims.
Life insurance companies are known to prey on people when they are at their most vulnerable. If they can deny the claim of a grieving widow on highly technical legal grounds, for example, they know that widow’s grief and depression make her much less likely to contest their decision. That’s why claim denial letters are usually sent out so soon after the policyholder’s death.
In one recent case, the life insurer not only exploited the widower’s grief in denying benefits, but exploited the couple’s status as immigrants to justify the faulty denial. As attorneys who specialize in the wrongful denial of life insurance claims, we see these tactics all the time. We’ve made it our sole mission to help innocent consumers overcome these denials. One of the ways we do this is by constantly studying other cases where claim denials are successfully overcome. Read on to explore how one life insurance company tried to use immigration status as the basis for a claim denial.
Model citizens and model employees
This case involves a life insurance policy held by a 59 year old woman named Wanda. Wanda and her husband Tran immigrated from Laos to the United States in 1986. They both gained regular employment, were good stewards of their community, and obtained citizenship status in the United States by 1998.
In 2009, Wanda had a new job with a law firm. As part of her benefits package, she was offered a life insurance policy, which she decided to obtain. During the application process, the life insurer asked for proof of Wanda’s birth date as her premiums would be based on her true age. Wanda provided the company with a copy of her Laotian birth certificate, which was all she had to prove her age. That birth certificate set her age at 58 at the time she obtained the policy, which meant she had to pay much lower premiums than she would have if she were over 60.
Just over a year later, Wanda and Tran took a trip to Laos to visit family. While they were there, Wanda suffered a heart attack and died. Upon returning to the United States, Tran made a claim for death benefits under Wanda’s life insurance policy. Given that she had paid premiums faithfully over the past year, Tran did not anticipate any issue with coverage.
Life insurance company determines a new birth date as a reason for denial
Much to Tran’s dismay, his claim for death benefits was denied. As the insurance adjuster explained in the denial letter, the insurance company had done an independent investigation into Wanda’s life and death after she died. As part of that investigation, they received copies of U.S. immigration documents suggesting that Wanda was 10 years older than she had led them to believe in her insurance application.
Tran was perplexed. He knew his wife was only 59 when she died. He sent the insurance company another copy of Wanda’s birth certificate, along with a copy of her Laotian death certificate, which gave the same date of birth. In response, the insurer produced copies of the immigration documents, which were based on an oral interview immigration workers held with Wanda as she was entering the United States. Those documents set Wanda’s birthdate exactly 10 years earlier than what the Laotian birth and death records indicated.
Based on those immigration documents, the insurance company claimed Wanda was really 68 when she had applied for insurance. As such, the company claimed that in order for Wanda to have a valid policy in place, she would have needed to pay premiums applicable to women aged 60 to 69. Since she did not do that, they claimed they could not make the death payout to Tran.
That was the point at which Tran wisely obtained an attorney specializing in the denial of life insurance claims. That attorney reviewed all of the documentary evidence and did his own investigation into the validity of the Laotian documents, as well as the immigration documents.
Ultimately, the case had to go to court. Tran’s attorney was able to convince the court of the veracity of the Laotian birth and death certificates. He also offered evidence of an immigration worker who testified that many times, things like dates get mistranslated during the oral interviews. Based on all of that evidence, the court found that the insurer had wrongfully denied Tran’s claim.
In this instance, Tran was exceptionally brave to take on the insurance company when they were essentially arguing that he and Wanda falsified documents in order to obtain life insurance coverage. Luckily, with the right attorney by his side, he was able to salvage his family’s good name.
Unfortunately, life insurance companies play tricks like this all the time. It is not unusual for them to contest the veracity of foreign birth certificates, medical records, and the like. They only do this, of course, to avoid paying otherwise valid claims.
If you or a loved on have had a life insurance claim denied on a similar basis, please call our firm today. We focus exclusively on life insurance claim denials and we are here to help you.
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Life Insurance and Missed Payments
For many people, life insurance is one of the most important assets they will leave their family. Shockingly, some life insurance companies can be very quick to deny benefits after a small lapse in payments. That of course saves the insurance company money, but it undermines the entire life insurance system.
Dispute Covered by Contract and State Law
Life insurance agreements require an insurance company to pay money to a deceased person’s family, so long as the deceased person was paying his or her premiums. Disputes about whether the premiums were being paid will generally be a contractual dispute. In other words, the dispute will be over whether the terms of the policy was followed. Most insurance policies have a grace period, so benefits do not evaporate if a payment was one day late. 60 days is a common grace period, and that is often actually longer that what the state law requires. Sometimes there is a dispute about whether the policy was followed correctly or not, though.
Courts can look at these situations differently. One recent case did not go well for a person that lapsed on his payments. The man involved bought a policy in 2015 that had a face value of $250,000. He missed some payments, and he was warned that his policy lapsed, but he was allowed to reinstate it after going through another medical exam. He did that, and the insurance company told him his policy would be reinstated right when he paid his next bill. Unfortunately for him, he died the day he got the bill and the insurance company initially refused to pay benefits to his widow.
We Know Life Insurance
Sometimes, issues related to paying premiums are very clear cut. After you have failed to pay your premiums for a long enough period of time, it becomes increasingly difficult to get benefits paid. Some situations are more complicated, though. If a company gave you misleading information about when a bill was due, or you suspect some sort of funny business going on with the insurance company, or the insured was in the hospital, then it is worth having a lawyer review your case to see.
We have successfully helped many clients collect money after a denied life insurance claim. We just got a $515,000 settlements for a client that had allegedly made misrepresentations in the underwriting process. We collected $526,000 for the family of a client who was not covered for an alcohol-related death, and the insurance company blamed alcohol. We just collected $221,000 for the beneficiaries of a deceased person that had let a policy lapse for three months. These are just a few of our many success stories, and all of these clients paid no out of pocket costs to us.
We handle all delayed life insurance claims and denied life insurance claims as well as beneficiary disputes and interpleader actions.
If you have ever considered purchasing life insurance, you may have wondered how you can be so sure that the insurance company will still be there when you die. After all, businesses go bankrupt all the time and you do not want to leave your family empty handed, especially if you are counting on life insurance to protect your family against financial ruin if something happens to you. It is important to understand the protections you may have.
Life Insurance Companies Protect Themselves
Life insurance companies know that nobody is going to buy insurance if companies fail to pay all the time. So every state has created a state insurance guaranty association that helps deal with this problem. Basically, every insurance company is required to pay dues into the association and then if one of the insurers fails the association will cover at least part of the benefits from the failed company. There is also a National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations that tries to ensure good behavior on the part of the individual state associations. The problem with this system is that it rarely covers all the benefits owed by a failed company. Instead, beneficiaries tend to get just a fraction of what the insured person had paid for.
Insurance companies have largely been left to govern themselves without much federal oversight. State insurance commissioners investigate complaints and can take over a failing insurer, but many industry watchers have suggested that the states are not doing enough. Insurance companies are generally required to keep a certain amount of money in reserve, but states often compete over who has the lowest requirements in order to attract more insurance companies. Moreover, the state associations generally do not have enough money in reserve for a major failure. Some state regulators, like New York, have fairly robust regulations and are generally thought to be doing a pretty good job. Overall, life insurance has proven reliable for many decades, but it may or may not survive a major shock in the future.
What If I Have a Life Insurance Claim Denied?
We recommend you call a life insurance law firm as soon as you receive your denial letter. A life insurance lawyer can help you evaluate your situation to see if you should be challenging it. Your first recourse is usually to appeal within the insurance company. Many people try to handle that appeal themselves and then hire a lawyer after that to appeal to a court. It can be much harder to get an insurance claim overturned in court, though, so getting a lawyer involved earlier rather than later is the most prudent course of action.
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