Just say, “No”.
Recent information has it that Unum may be asking insureds to allow the company to speak with spouses and children. While I would think such a request is an obvious “stick it in your ear” kind of question, callers to DCS are flipping out about it wondering what will happen if they don’t allow it.
Spouses and children are not parties to any disability contract and are NOT required to be brought in as witnesses against their family members. It seems obvious that the reason for the request is to find “inconsistent” stories about activities by asking minors what the disabled parent is doing. Insurance companies do not have the right to involve, or bring in any persons who are not parties to a disability contract. This is true of peers, neighbors, and co-workers. This is one time Unum needs to be told “stuff it” and sent on its way.
Contestability
This issue only involves IDI insureds and can be a major stone in one’s shoe due to misunderstandings at the time of application and underwriting. “Contestability” as you know, is a provision included in IDI policies that provides both insurers and insureds with a buffer for information that is found to be inaccurate or misrepresented within 2 years of the Effective Date of Coverage. If any misrepresentations are found after two years, there is no penalty and claims cannot be denied or policies rescinded.
However, questions asked are often deceiving and not well understood. For example, Standard’s “Application for Disability Insurance” asks questions in two different ways:
- “Have you had, been told you had, been treated or diagnosed by a medical practitioner as having…..” There are 13 specific questions ranging from disorders of the eye, ear, nose, throat to cysts, back or neck pain, FMS and CFS, asthma, high blood pressure etc. In fact, Standard’s questionnaire makes one wonder if any disability would be covered.
- A second set of questions, namely, “Other than as stated in other answers, have you within the last 5 years…?” This is an entirely different way of asking a question. Number (1) implies “have you EVER had”, and number (2) asks specifically within the last 5 years.
Some of these questions Standard asks are outlandish. “In the last 3 years have you had any physical or mental condition or symptom that has not been treated or diagnosed?” What does this question even mean? How is the insured supposed to answer this question? Did you have a headache…cut on finger…what? I remember Unum tried to get away with rescinding a policy because the insured never revealed she took Advil for a headache.
Again, contestability issues can be easily resolved by NOT filing claims for the first two years after the Effective Date of Coverage. Insurance companies go way beyond what’s reasonable with investigations regarding “misrepresentation.”
For those who may not know, insurers can rescind the policy, deny benefits, or engage in new underwriting recalculating what premium should have been had the misrepresentation not been made. In order to continue the policy, the insured would need to “pay up” all outstanding premium. However, it’s also likely the insurance company will exclude your current claimed disability from coverage in the future.
