AXA Equitable Life Insurance Claim Denial
AXA Equitable and other big life insurance companies will sometimes do anything they can to avoid paying out on claims. Their business is based on collecting premiums, not paying out benefits. They may stretch and misinterpret language in the policy, medical evidence in the record, or other facts in order to deny a claim. You need to know that when AXA Equitable denies your life insurance coverage, you do not have to take that rejection at face value. You have the right to push back, and you do not need to do it alone. The seasoned wrongful life insurance denial attorneys at Gianelli & Morris are ready to help.
Who is AXA Equitable?
Equitable Holdings, Inc. is a financial services and insurance company that has gone by several names over the years. For most of the 2000s, Equitable was known as AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, owned in large part by AXA Group of France. In late 2019, AXA sold off its stake in AXA Equitable Holdings, and in 2020 Equitable revealed its standalone rebranding.
Regardless of the name, AXA Equitable is and has been one of the largest providers of financial and insurance products in the United States. The company generates nearly $10 billion annually in revenue and, by 2018, had over 15,800 agents licensed by the State of California alone. AXA Equitable also has a history of underhanded tactics aimed at maximizing profits over the interests of policyholders and beneficiaries. In fact, AXA Equitable has been the target of multiple class-action lawsuits alleging the company made misrepresentations to insurance plan members and misused funds in client accounts. It’s no surprise, then, that they also have a history of wrongfully denying legitimate insurance claims.
Why Does AXA Equitable Deny Life Insurance Claims?
If you have a life insurance policy administered by AXA Equitable or Equitable, you have the right to coverage upon the death of the covered individual. Unfortunately, large insurance companies like AXA Equitable are always looking for any excuse to deny claims. Sometimes their claim denials rely on a lack of evidence, other times on technicalities in the policies or applications. Sometimes, unscrupulous life insurance companies simply lie, misrepresenting the language in the policy, the medical evidence in the record, or the accepted conclusions of health scientists.
If your AXA Equitable life insurance claim has been denied for any reason, you have the right to fight back. At Gianelli & Morris, we have years of experience countering unfounded or unlawful justifications for life insurance claim denial. We’ll help you get the coverage you are owed after AXA Equitable bases a claim denial on, for example:
- Excluded cause of death. Life insurance policies often exclude certain causes of death, including suicide, criminal activity, or preexisting conditions. However, just because AXA Equitable claims that a death was caused by an excluded event means does not make it so. They may misrepresent the conclusions of police or medical examiners, or overlook that certain exclusions are time-dependent.
- Policy lapse. Life insurance companies have a habit of intentionally letting life insurance policies lapse when elderly policyholders forget to make payments. California law, however, sets certain notice and grace period requirements before a policy can be terminated for lack of payment. If AXA failed to properly notify the policyholder and/or other interested parties or failed to give sufficient time to correct, then the policy is still valid and they must pay out on an otherwise valid claim.
- Lack of evidence. Claims are often denied simply due to a lack of supporting evidence. When you file your claim, you must include all relevant documents including autopsy reports, medical records, and police reports. Often, a denial based on a lack of supporting evidence can be easily remedied by supplying the missing records.
- Misstatements in the policy application. Insurers can rescind policies if the initial policy application had material misstatements. Those misstatements must, however, be material (important), not technical errors. Moreover, rescission can only occur in the first two years of the policy. A life insurance claim cannot be denied based on errors in the application if the death occurs more than two years after the policy’s start date.
- Beneficiary involvement. Insurers may drag out an investigation or deny a claim outright based on the alleged involvement of a beneficiary in the death of the insured party. The claims must be paid out, however, even if to a different beneficiary, and AXA is not allowed to drag out an investigation indefinitely. Talk to a seasoned life insurance denial attorney about your case for help ensuring that AXA Equitable does not drag out your claim investigation for an unlawful period of time, or base a denial on minimal evidence.
Call Gianelli & Morris for Help After a Wrongful Claim Denial by AXA Equitable Life Insurance
If someone you love has passed away and your life insurance claim has been denied by AXA Equitable Life or another California life insurance provider, contact the dedicated and effective Los Angeles insurance denial lawyers Gianelli & Morris for a no-cost evaluation of your claim at 213-489-1600.
