Maryland Life Insurance Denial Attorney

With the loss of a loved one, your life can be turned upside down. An early death is always tragic, even if it was expected after a long battle with cancer or a life-long health condition. When your family is grieving, the last thing you want to worry about is your financial stability, which is why so many families use life insurance policies in the first place.

Our team of attorneys can help you get fair compensation after an insurance company wrongfully denies your life insurance claim related to a loved one’s wrongful death. Wrongful death cases are often very complex, and insurance companies are not above denying claims for grieving families. Insurance companies might deny life insurance claims for causes of death not covered by the policy, even though no such causes exist in your case. An attorney can help you file a wrongful death lawsuit against the people responsible for your loved one’s death and show the insurance company that the policy should cover your claim.

Schedule a free case evaluation at Rice, Murtha & Psoras by calling our life insurance denial attorneys at (410) 694-7291.

Life Insurance Denials after Wrongful Death in Maryland

Life insurance claims might be denied for a number of reasons. If the claim is related to the wrongful death of a loved one, dealing with a denial might be extremely difficult. Our life insurance denial attorneys can help you sue the person responsible for your loved one’s passing and the life insurance company for wrongfully denying your insurance claims.

Life Insurance and Wrongful Death

While we rely on insurance companies to provide financial assistance in times of need, the last thing they want is actually to have to pay. Insurance companies are infamous for wriggling out of obligations to customers. Since wrongful death cases tend to involve suspicious circumstances, insurance companies are often on high alter for any excuse to deny the claim.

Families often rely on life insurance for several reasons. First, the deceased loved one might have contributed income to the household. Without that income, the family might struggle to get by and need the life insurance claim to ensure financial security. Second, when a death is wrongful, families must deal with the denied life insurance claim and a wrongful death lawsuit. Lawsuits take time and can be expensive, and families might rely heavily on life insurance claims.

Getting Compensation

Generally, the fact that a death was caused by someone else’s negligent or wrongful behavior does not give insurance companies grounds to deny a claim. If your insurance company denied the life insurance claim for your loved one’s death, and you suspect it has to do with the fact that the death was wrongful, an attorney can help you take legal action to get compensation.

You might have a case against two parties. First, we can help you sue the person or people responsible for your loved one’s death in a wrongful death lawsuit. Wrongful death cases often take time and effort, but the damages and potential compensation are often very significant. In addition, the potential beneficiaries in a wrongful death case might include multiple grieving family members.

Second, we can help you get compensation from the insurance company. Even without a wrongful death lawsuit, the insurance company should still pay you for the life insurance policy. The insurance company might change its mind if we appeal its decision through the company’s appeal process. Sometimes, the denial was a mistake, and the insurance company might quickly correct it once it is brought to its attention. However, we should also be prepared to file a lawsuit against the insurance company.

Why Life Insurance Might Be Denied After a Wrongful Death in Maryland

When a life insurance claim is related to a wrongful death, insurance companies might pay special attention to the case to find reasons to deny the claim. If you are in such a situation, you should speak to an attorney about dealing with both the wrongful death and your insurance company.

Reasons for a Denial Related to Wrongful Death

Many wrongful deaths involve some sort of illegal activity, usually on the part of the person who caused your loved one’s death. However, insurance companies often deny life insurance claims if the deceased person was doing something illegal at the time of their death. You and an attorney might need to prove to the insurance company that your loved one was not involved in anything illegal at the time of their death, even though the death was wrongful.

Although it is very difficult for families to talk about, many insurance companies will not pay out a life insurance claim if the deceased person committed suicide. This becomes very problematic when a deceased person also experienced mental health struggles before they passed away. Even if evidence indicates your loved one’s passing was caused by someone else, the fact that they had a history of mental health problems might cause the insurance company to deny the claim.

Similarly, many insurance policies will deny a life insurance claim if the death was caused by drugs or alcohol. For example, a family might try to claim the deceased person’s life insurance policy after a car accident. However, if the insurance company believes that the deceased person was intoxicated at the time of the crash, they will likely deny the claim.

Challenging the Denied Insurance Claim

If your claim for life insurance is denied, and the case is related to a wrongful death, our attorneys can help you take the necessary steps to challenge the insurance company while also preparing a wrongful death lawsuit.

First, we can help you file a lawsuit for the wrongful death. This lawsuit does not necessarily involve your insurance company, but it is necessary to hold negligent parties liable for your loved one’s passing. However, it might help your case with the insurance company regarding the denied life insurance policy. Insurance companies often deny life insurance claims if they believe the deceased person caused their own death (e.g., drugs, alcohol, suicide) or if they died by an uncovered illness. By filing a wrongful death claim against the people truly responsible for your loved one’s death, we are sending a message to the insurance company that your loved one did not cause their own death and that someone else will be held accountable.

We can also help you sue the insurance company for wrongfully denying your claim if necessary. The life insurance policy is a contract with the insurance company. When they denied the claim, they failed to hold up their end of the bargain. While there might be other steps to take first, like filing an appeal, a lawsuit might be necessary in the end.

What Can I Do After a Maryland Life Insurance Company Denied My Claim?

Filing a life insurance claim is never easy, and many spouses and children file these claims with a heavy heart every day after the loss of a loved one. The last thing that they want to hear is that the claim has been denied because of technicalities or problems with the policy. If your life insurance claim was denied, there are a few steps you can take, and our

Maryland life insurance denial attorneys can help.

Beneficiaries of a life insurance policy can often appeal the denial. This will mean contacting the insurance company and working through their processes to refute the reasons for denying the claim. If you can provide documentation and evidence to help overcome their reason for denial, the claim could be paid.

Your life insurance denial lawyer can also negotiate with the insurance company. Even if there were legitimate problems with the claim that meant it could be denied, we might be able to negotiate with the company and get the claim paid instead of resorting to a lawsuit or something more extreme to get the payout you deserve.

If those steps fail, we can take the insurance company to court for you. A claim of bad faith insurance can often get the claim paid, and denials reversed if the insurance company was using false grounds to deny your claim.

Legal and Illegal Grounds for Insurance Denials in Maryland

A life insurance policy is a contract between the insured policyholder and the insurance company that says that when the policyholder dies, the insurance company will pay benefits to the listed beneficiary or beneficiaries. Under these contracts, the insurance customer (the “insured”) agrees to pay monthly premiums, and the insurance company agrees to pay out the listed benefits upon the insured’s death.

What this means is that insurance companies make money when insureds pay them, and they lose money when they have to pay out benefits, so they often do everything in their power to deny payment. However, many of these grounds for denials are illegal or illegitimate, and our Maryland life insurance denial lawyers can help you overcome the denial.

Self-Inflicted Injuries

Some policies deny payment if the victim dies because of injuries they ultimately caused. This can include injuries from suicide or injuries from the deceased’s own negligence (e.g., a car accident that they caused). If there is no evidence to suggest that your loved one died this way, then you might need to prove to the insurance company that they are wrong and that there were other complications or that someone else’s fault caused the death.

Insurance companies could also deny claims if the policyholder used illegal drugs or participated in other activities that they consider harmful. Again, facts and evidence could overcome any false or illegitimate accusations of self-harm.

Non-Payment

Insurance companies will also refuse to pay if they believe there was a gap in insurance payments or other problems with the payments (e.g., a check that did not clear) that might constitute a breach of the terms of the policy. If you have records that payments were made on time, they can help you refute these claims.

There could also be other complications or misunderstandings with records that insurance companies bank on to get a chance to deny claims. If they deny claims in bad faith, our life insurance denial attorneys can fight them in court.

Fraud or Misrepresentation

Insurance companies use a lot of factors to calculate premium amounts and to determine whether it is “worth it” to insure someone. For older insurance customers or customers with health problems, premiums are often higher because the company is likely to make less from premium payments than they will pay out in benefits.

If the policyholder dies and the insurance company finds out that they had a condition that would have resulted in higher premiums or they otherwise think that the insurance customer was “holding out on them,” they might deny payment.

Many of these excuses are pretextual and are not based on any actual facts or real problems. Insurance companies cannot be allowed to deny policies on made-up fraud accusations. Even discrepancies such as listing the wrong weight or age for the insured could result in denied claims in some cases.

Bad Faith

As mentioned, “bad faith” is a problem with insurance payments in many cases. Insurance companies have a duty of good faith, which means that they must make an honest effort to pay claims when they fall within the terms of their insurance policy. If there was a violation of the terms, they have legal grounds to deny a claim – but if they make up excuses or false grounds to deny a claim, they could be operating in bad faith.

Lawsuits for bad faith insurance can often help denied claims get reversed and get the beneficiary additional payments for damages.

Call Our Maryland Lawyer for Denied Life Insurance Claims

Arrange a free legal consultation with our Maryland personal injury attorneys at Rice, Murtha & Psoras by calling (301) 381-4617.