Articles

The only objective of buying a life insurance policy is to provide a financially independent life to your dependents in your absence. It is always better to go for a vanilla term insurance plan to protect your loved ones after you. But, a few mistakes in filling the application form can lead to rejection of your claim by the insurer. The most important advise to ensure that the claims are settled without any trouble to your family is to fill your application form on your own. Also, avoid the following mistakes for a smooth claim settlement process. 1. Concealing or filling wrong information in application form Hiding or giving false information in the application form can lead to rejection of life insurance claim. Fill details such as age, income, occupation, qualification, lifestyle (smoking/drinking), information on previous policies and claims if any, and other information in the application form carefully and correctly. These are important factors in deciding the premium. Incorrect or incomplete data can also constitute to fraud and lead to suspension of policy benefits. 2. Hiding pre-existing medical conditions Disclosure of previous and existing medical conditions, operations, surgeries, etc., is mandatory because it influences the policy premium. When buying an online term plan, most insurance portals also require you to highlight lifestyle choices like smoking while computing the premiums. Health details of family members, especially conditions like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, blood pressure, or any other hereditary conditions must also be shared to avoid rejections of life insurance claims. 3. Non-updation of nominee An insurance company can reject your claim in case of absence of the nominee. This happens usually in the case when people buy life insurance at an early age and name their parnts as nominee. Later, if there is a need to make a claim and the parents are not alive, the claim gets rejected. Remember to update yor nomine after your marriage or death of your parents, whichever is earlier. 4. Not Disclosing Existing Insurance Policies You must disclose all your existing life insurance policies while filling the applicatiopn form. Sometimes people don’t fill these details only beacuse they feel lazy to sift through the old policy documents. But concealing this information can get to rejection of your life insuranec claim. 5. Non-payment of premium If the due premium is not paid by the end of the grace period the policy lapses without value. Insurers cannot reject claims after three years Under Section 45 of the Insurance Act, no policy of life insurance shall be called in question on any ground by the insurer after three years from the date of commencement of the policy. In case of revived policies, the three year term will begin from the date of revival of the policy.