Actually, your insurance should still be payable unless the contract was entered in contemplation of suicide, or within the exclusion period. Other than that, it doesn’t matter what you do, they have to pay.
Hmmm… wasn’t aware payout was the rule rather than the exception. We always hear about people faking an accident for insurance reasons, like that UPS worker who hijacked the airplane. Must’ve been a new policy, though, so your point about the exclusionary period makes sense.
For what it’s worth, Ian Fleming in “Casino Royale” dealt with James Bond attempting suicide by will alone while being tortured. Didn’t work.
“Hope is not a method”
Scylia - maybe there is a suicide clause in some life insurance policies or something. My dad’s best friend shot himself in the head with a .22, quite purposefully, when I was a teenager. He and my dad had worked for the same company for years. Not only did he leave a wife, three kids and two granchildren wondering “why?”, he left them wondering how to keep from losing the house. The insurance company would not pay them a dime.
Sorry, off topic.
A little more on topic, but really questionable: A home health nurse I talk to frequently because of work related the story of an elderly lady who was the first patient she ever visited alone. She said the woman, who was bedridden, told her during the visit she was about to die. The nurse thought she was just joking until she closed her eyes and went limp and motionless. She said she could find no pulse or reflexes and called her supervisor, and was very shaken. The woman on the phone told her to make absolutely sure the woman was dead, yadda yadda. According to the nurse, while she was checking her further for signs of life, the woman’s eyes flew open and she told her she had decided not to go. (Keep in mind, she said the whole process took 20-30 minutes, during which the woman really appeared to be dead). After this whole scene, ahe said other nurses at the home health company tld them this woman had also done the same thing to them.
Unlikely, and now that it’s taken so long to write down, not as interesting as I thought, either.
Careful with that axe, Eugene.
Jane_says:
Certasin renewable term policies may never exceed the exclusionary period, as they are a new policy each time the term comes up. THis is a pretty dirty trick, because it can also exclude preexisting conditions, like Cancer.
Most whole and Universal Life policies have a two year exclusionary clause for suicide and such.
THis may trouble you:
Your dad’s friend may very well have been covered. Some of your less than savory insurance companies have been known to deny a claim even when they know it’s rightfully payable. They figure four out of five people will just say “oh” and drop it under the assumption that the insurance company is honest.
If they are right they keep the money, if it’s pursued they pay. How do they lose? There is, get this, nothing illegal about this at all.