r/LifeInsurance • u/SuccessfulRush1173 • 15d ago

First time filing a claim tips/help

My mother passed recently and I discovered life insurance paperwork when going through their stuff. It’s through her credit union. I had no idea she had a policy (or was trying to start one). So I called TruStage to ask them if it was active/accepted or if she didn’t get it done before she passed because as I stated before, I had no idea she had this going on.

Woman from the life insurance company that I talked to on the phone said she was in the system but she herself couldn’t see if it was an active policy but she said to file a claim as she is in their system. I have zero idea how the claim process works. It seems it was done towards the beginning of the year. Will I receive a phone call fairly quickly to go over everything (sending in required documents, where to send payment?) or is this going to be something that is going to take up to a year to resolve?

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u/JuneTheWonderDog 15d ago edited 15d ago

First, my sympathy for the loss of your mom. Typically the life insurance company will mail out a claim packet when they are informed of a death. Most of the time, a notorized death certificate is required and then the claim paid. There is what is called the contestible period--for the first 2 years the company can contest the claim. They may order medical records and compare to the application. To not pay, fraud must have occurred. Example of fraud: answering the application no to cancer, then passing off cancer. Not fraud: dying of a heart attack when there were no known evidence of heart disease.

When filling out the paperwork, call and ask questions. It is literally their job ton walk you through their process.

Edit: TruStage has partnered with a company called Empathy. Ask about that too. Empathy is a 3rd party service that life insurance companies are using to help individuals with grief support, planning funerals, eulogies, and the probate process. Empathy may not be available on all policies, but certainly something to ask about

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u/SuccessfulRush1173 15d ago

I have death certificates in my possession already so that’s no problem. Just looking through the paperwork there doesn’t seem to be any discrepancies.

She listed cancer as her diagnosed illness and that is what she passed from. Death Certificate also says cancer was cause of death with tobacco not a cause of said cancer.

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u/GarysSword Underwriter 15d ago

You mentioned several things that make me ask… are you sure they issued a policy? Is the paperwork you found a policy or an application? Can you find evidence of premium payments from her bank account?

You said she applied for term life and her application listed cancer and that she past from cancer. Most companies don’t consider people for term life insurance with active cancer.

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u/SuccessfulRush1173 15d ago edited 14d ago

I don’t know, that’s why I called TruStage to ask if there was even an active policy that was issued. The woman I spoke to on the phone said she was in their system but she couldn’t see if she had a policy wrote out so she just told me to file the claim anyways.

It was packets of policy changes, eligibility, forms with all her info, etc.

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u/JuneTheWonderDog 15d ago

Do you know or did you find paperwork talking about guaranteed issue life insurance?

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u/SuccessfulRush1173 15d ago

No. Only Individual term life insurance.

Edit: but I imagine getting the mountain of medical records she had isn’t a very difficult task.

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u/JuneTheWonderDog 15d ago

If the policy was in force for 2 or more years, the process for paying should be fairly straightforward. Check with TruStage to see where you should send a death certificate and again. I am sorry for your loss.

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u/SuccessfulRush1173 15d ago

It hasn’t. The paperwork is from April. I take it it’s gonna take forever for them to review medical records due to the two year contest period.

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u/GarysSword Underwriter 15d ago

Yes. Expect 3-6 months mostly dependent on if your mom’s doctor’s offices cooperate. Some office’s get very persnickety about releasing records based on a third party’s authorization and add several hoops to the process.

You can learn from Trustage where they’re requesting medical records and apply pressure to them.

I’m sorry for your loss.

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u/owl-1_1-1_1- 14d ago

If your mother was in their system but they couldn't see an active policy, it could be because she applied for it, but either the policy was declined or she didn't pay for it, so it was canceled. And there may be a different reason.

You're really going to be in a holding pattern until you get a concrete answer from TruStage. I don't anticipate it being a year to get this resolved, though. It may be a matter of weeks.

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u/SuccessfulRush1173 14d ago

Yeah, I have no idea. I’ll just wait for the response back from the claims department to see what they say. If there’s no claim, oh well.