Hopefully, you and your family can get through life without having to make a life insurance claim. However, if you do, you’ll have to work out the process during a particularly traumatic time.
Here is a guide on where to start, so you’ll be ready if the worst ever happens.
What is life insurance?
Life insurance is a financial benefit provided to you and/or your family if an unexpected event happens to you, such as disability, illness or even death.
This benefit enables your family to keep meeting financial obligations and basic needs during that difficult time.
The types of events that your insurance could cover depend on your lifestyle and needs. Life insurance products can include:
- trauma cover – for terminal illness or injury
- income protection – for loss of income due to injury or illness
- total and permanent disability cover – for serious injury or permanent disability
- life cover – for your loved ones if you pass away.
How to make a claim
If you or your family needs to make a life insurance claim, contact the person or organisation you bought the product from. This could be an insurer, superannuation fund, your broker or other entity.
Give them your policy number. They will tell you which form to complete to make the claim.
Get the information together
To make the process easier and prevent hold-ups with your claim, make sure you have all the information you need.
What you need will depend on the insurance product. It might include:
- certified proof of identification
- medical reports and any other evidence that you can’t work
- bank statements and payslips
- specialist reports
- details of your job, your tasks, the hours you work, etc.
For life/death cover, your family will need to provide a death certificate certified by a justice of the peace.
Claiming life insurance as a beneficiary
A person who takes out life insurance can put beneficiaries on the policy who can make a claim if the policyholder dies.
If a beneficiary wishes to claim life insurance after death, they should submit a claim form as quickly as possible after collating the necessary information, including the death certificate. It can take several weeks to process a claim.
What happens next
Send the form and other required documents to the insurer, so they can start processing your claim. They will contact you if they need more from you.
Be aware that it could take several weeks and even months to finalise your claim.
If you disagree with their decision
If you’re not happy with an insurer’s decision or their process, you can make a complaint with them. However, if you can’t make any headway, you can consider getting help from an insurance claim lawyers gold coast.
Our local Gold Coast insurance lawyers are committed to helping everyday Aussies receive the compensation they deserve. Contact the team today to discuss your matter.
