How to Claim Life Insurance

In Thailand, filing a life insurance claim can be a long and difficult process, especially if a loved one has passed. To reduce the financial burden and receive the benefits agreed upon by the police, you must make a life insurance claim.

How to Make a Life Insurance Claim

If you are a beneficiary on a recently deceased person’s life insurance policy, you need to file a claim before you are able to collect the death benefits. If you don’t file the claim, you probably won’t see the money and waste the policyholder’s premium payments. Thinking about life insurance after a loved one’s death is not greedy. After all, the whole purpose of purchasing life insurance is to help beneficiaries cope with the loss. Therefore, there is no shame in pursuing the money that a loved one wanted you to have.

There is no rush and no time limit to claim on a life insurance policy. When it comes to the death of a loved one, insurance companies understand that you have other priorities. The process of filing a death claim is simple and straightforward. In this article, we’ll help you understand how to make a life insurance claim in easy steps and why a life insurance claim might be rejected.

Key Points

A death benefit can be paid out by a life insurance company to the person or people you named as beneficiaries on the policy.
Death benefits are not automatically paid out, the beneficiary must first file a claim with the life insurance company.
A life insurance company should be notified as quickly as possible after the death of the insured person to begin the claims and payout process.

Prepare the Required Documents

The first step is to gather all of the necessary paperwork. It can be difficult to find the energy or focus to do anything after a loved one has passed away. Having your paperwork in order, on the other hand, will help speed up the process and receive your benefits sooner. Only three documents are required to claim a policy’s death benefit.

- Death certificate – A certified copy of the policyholder’s death certificate will be required by the insurer. This proof of death ensures that policies are rightfully claimed and aids in the prevention of fraud.
- Policy document – The policy document contains all of the important information about the life insurance policy such as the term, the death benefit amount, policyholder information and so on. The insurer will compare this with their records to ensure you’re claiming under the correct policy.
- Claim form – Also known as a “request for benefits,” this is where you enter information about the policyholder such as their policy number and cause of death. You will also need to specify your relationship to the policyholder and how you want to be paid once the carrier has completed processing your claim.

Get In Touch With The Insurance Company

You’ll need to contact the insurance company that issued the life insurance policy once you’ve gathered all of your documents. Being prepared ahead of time, as with so many other things, will make the process go much more smoothly and avoid delays in receiving financial assistance.

If the beneficiary or representative knows where the policyholder bought life insurance, the beneficiary or representative should contact the insurance company as soon as possible to file a claim, according to the policy.

Death certificate, Policy document and Claim Forms are the only 3 documents need to file a claim.

Allow Enough Time For the Claim To Be Processed

After you’ve taken care of your side of the deal, the insurance company will run a few basic checks. They’ll double-check that you’re are the named beneficiary on the policy. During the underwriting process, insurance companies require policyholders to provide the name, address, and date of birth of beneficiaries named on the policy. You may be asked to provide proof of identity during the claim process, such as a driver’s licence, ID card, or birth certificate.

A death benefit may be paid out within a few days, but in the worst-case scenario, it could take up to 30 to 60 days. You can find out more about when the insurance company’s cutoff date is by contacting them directly.

There is no set time limit for filing a life insurance claim but the sooner you do so, the better.

Obtain the Death Benefit

There are a few different ways to receive the death benefit depending on the insurer and the plan. Lump sums and annuities are the two of the most basic and widely used options.

Lump Sum
You will receive the entire death benefit in one lump sum. This means you won’t have to worry about finding other ways to pay for things like a funeral or a mortgage. Not only will you receive the full death benefit but you will also avoid paying taxes on it. When you fill out the claim form you should be able to specify how you want it delivered or you may be able to receive a check or receive direct deposit.

Annuity
Instead of receiving the death benefit as a lump sum, you may convert the lump-sums into an annuity payment which can help you with money management. An annuity is a financial instrument in which your initial payment (death benefit) is invested and then returned to you as an annual payment for a predetermined number of years, with the possibility of receiving more money at the end of the term in some cases.

What Factors can Influence the Rejection of your Claim?

Although it’s rare, but life insurance claim can be rejected, here are some of the major things that might cause your claim to be rejected:

Non-disclosed information – Payouts can be rejected or reduced if the policyholder didn’t give full and accurate information about themselves, such as not mentioning a relevant medical condition or failing to tell the insurer that they smoke.
Cause of death is not covered – Some life insurance policies exclude death by reckless behaviour, suicide, and death caused by alcohol or drug use. Specifics should be stated within your term.
The policy term has ended – A term life insurance policy will expire after a certain period of time. If the period of time has passed, you will not be able to make a claim. However, you can check out whole of life insurance covers that will not expire.