It may come as a shock when the life insurance company denies your claim or pays out less than it should, but life insurance companies have a long history of finding reasons to deny claims. In 2021 alone, over 4,800 Americans had some kind of complaint with their life insurance company. What’s even more troubling, is that statistic only includes people that actually submitted complaints to State insurance regulatory bodies such as the Illinois Department of Insurance.

Submitting a complaint to a consumer protection agency is always a responsible action that alerts them to unfair insurer conduct. There’s no guarantee, however, that it will help in getting your claim paid. Furthermore The Department of Insurance’s investigation will likely result in them refusing to be involved in factual disputes. The single best course of action you can take to ensure that you get the money your loved one paid for you to receive in case of their unfortunate passing is to hire an experienced life insurance lawyer.

An Accidental Death Benefit is typically an addendum to a life insurance policy, but is  sometimes a separate policy, that pays the beneficiary in the case death was by an accidental cause, i.e. did not occur as a result of natural causes or disease. Life insurance companies will often offer an Accidental Death Benefit for a very low cost because they occur so infrequently. Despite the pain and suffering beneficiaries of life insurance policies often endure when their loved one suffers accidental death, profit-driven life insurance companies will research facts to avoid paying these types of claims. So is up to the beneficiary to diligently pursue what is rightfully theirs. This often requires hiring a lawyer experienced in handling accidental death claims to assist them. 

A lawyer with experience handling accidental death claims will hold life insurance companies accountable for paying beneficiaries the entire amount of accidental death benefit claims, also called accidental death insurance claims, or accidental death and dismemberment insurance claims. Often, insurance companies will try to assert that accidental deaths in fact occurred because of natural causes. 

One common example of an unjust accidental death benefit denial that insurance companies may try is where the death did not occur immediately following an accident, but still happened as a result of the accident. For example, a policyholder suffers a traffic accident, and several months later dies from injuries which they sustained in the accident. In this situation, an accidental death lawyer can assist in proving that this death did indeed occur as a result of an accident, and ensure that the insurance company pays in full. 

It can be tempting to want to go it alone. Many people enjoy feeling in control from negotiating their own insurance claims. Taking on that responsibility sometimes does not end with a good result. Instead of taking on the risk of having your insurance claim denied and not getting the claim paid like you deserve, hire a life insurance attorney to give you the peace of mind that your settlement is in the hands of someone who has investigated and successfully gotten claims similar to yours paid.