Life Insurance Canceled For Non-Payment In California
What Are The California Life Insurance Policy Cancelation Rules?
A life insurance policy can’t be shut off like an overdue cable bill—and rightly so. Even if you love your TV shows on cable, as we all do, you know that your life insurance policy is more important. Not surprisingly, California has additional laws and life insurance policy cancelation rules that make “turning off” a life insurance policy much harder than the cable company turning off your cable if the payment deadline for a life insurance premium has been missed. When your life insurance is canceled for non-payment, the first thing you have to ask yourself, as a California resident, is, “was my life insurance policy really canceled?”
A “Notice Of Cancellation For Non-Payment” Must Be Sent By The Insurer
To cancel a life insurance policy for non-payment in California, the life insurance company has to send a “Notice Of Cancellation For Non-Payment” to the insured–and anyone else designated for notice on the policy. That Notice must be sent at least 15 days before the life insurance policy lapses for non-payment. But there are life insurance policy cancelation rules in California: The life insurance policy doesn’t just expire, or lapse, or end at the end of the paid time period. The crucial fact for cancelling a life insurance policy is the Notice; without which, the insurance policy does not become a cancelled or expired policy.
Without The “Notice Of Cancellation For Non-Payment”, The Policy Is Still In Force
Without the Notice, sent in the right time period, to the right people, and records of this being kept properly, the policy coverage does not end. If the life insurance company has not performed this duty, they may have violated California life insurance law.
This is an amazing difference when compared to an ordinary bill, like a cable bill. You pay the cable company for the month. You need to pay the next month but don’t, for whatever reason. The cable company does not have to send you a “Notice of Cancellation of Service.” They may send you a letter that you are late; they may even call, but all that is just collection service work. They don’t have to send a notice, and wait the right length of time before turning off the service.
A life insurance company must send the Notice of Cancellation otherwise the policy is not cancelled.
I assure you that this requirement has made many life insurance company executives from states other than California angrier than you can imagine. In other states, the life insurance companies may have greater power, and operate as a more ordinary commercial transaction. The payment period for the policy ends, so it ends. But in California, because of our consumer protection history and the protection that life insurance is sold upon, a special notice is required.
Are You A Life Insurance Policy Beneficiary Whose Claim Was Denied For Non-Payment Of Premium?
If the life insurance was canceled for non-payment (meaning you have received a notice of cancelation for non-payment), and the insured life unfortunately passes near that time, contact us. We can get all of the facts together, and make sure to hold the life insurance company to its duty to follow California law; not the cable TV laws of some other state.
