Transamerica Life Insurance Claim Denial
Life insurance companies, like other insurance providers, seem to care more about their bottom line than they do about their policyholders or beneficiaries. When a policy is triggered, big life insurance companies like Transamerica Corporation may aggressively hunt for any reason to deny claims and reduce payouts. They might claim that a cause of death is not covered or that a policy was invalid when entered due to some manufactured error in the application. If you or your loved one bought a life insurance policy, you are entitled to the coverage you paid for. You should not have to deal with fighting an insurance provider on top of dealing with the death of your family member.
The California life insurance and bad faith insurance attorneys at Gianelli & Morris are here to help you understand your rights and fight for the compensation you are owed. If you’ve paid for coverage, we will make sure you get it. Find out if you’re a good candidate to appeal a wrongful life insurance denial or file a bad faith insurance claim by contacting the Los Angeles offices of Gianelli & Morris for a free consultation.
About Transamerica
Transamerica is a part of Aegon, which is a multinational life insurance, pension, and asset management company. Transamerica offers life and supplemental health insurance investments and retirement services.
As any number of policyholder reviews will tell you, Transamerica is just like any other insurance company: They are your best friend when selling you a policy, then constantly hounding you when your premiums are due, and nowhere to be found when it is their turn to pay out on the policy you purchased. If you trigger a term life, whole life, or accidental death policy with Transamerica, you can be sure that they will scrutinize the initial application and health condition of the policyholder in such detail that you will feel like you have somehow broken the law. They seem to be in the business of selling policies and collecting premiums, not paying out claims.
Policy Rescission vs. Claim Denial
One of the principal strategies on which life insurance companies rely when rejecting coverage is the “material misrepresentation.” Rather than pointing to the policy language and asserting that a life insurance claim should be denied because of an exclusion, the insurance provider will look back to the policyholder’s original application and argue that there was a material error, invalidating the policy in its entirety. The insurance company will then try to “rescind” the policy, effectively invalidating the policy and putting the parties back in the position they would be in had there never been a policy–meaning the premiums are refunded and the insurance company doesn’t need to pay out on a claim.
In order to rescind the policy, the insurance company must demonstrate that the policyholder made a “material misrepresentation” in their application. A misrepresentation is only “material” if it might have changed the company’s mind about issuing the policy at all, or possibly in setting the price or terms. If the applicant lied about their medical history, their habit of smoking or drinking, or some other key factor related to their health, then the life insurance company can rescind the policy. If, however, the insurance provider points to some minor mistake, such as an error in the applicant’s contact information or even their income level, then they should not be permitted to rescind the policy.
Additionally, in California, life insurance providers can only rescind a policy within two years of the policy’s issuance or renewal. If the policyholder dies after the two-year “contestability period” has passed, even if the insurer finds blatant errors on the application, they must still pay out on the claim. If your life insurance provider tries to rescind a policy rather than pay a claim, call a seasoned California life insurance claim denial lawyer to make sure you get the coverage you deserve.
Gianelli & Morris is Ready to Help You Fight Your Transamerica Life Insurance Claim Denial
If your loved one has passed and your life insurance claim has been denied by Transamerica or another California life insurance provider, contact the seasoned and dedicated Los Angeles insurance denial lawyers Gianelli & Morris for a free evaluation of your claim. Call us today at 213-489-1600.
