Claim settlement Life Insurance

Firstly your family member has to get a claim settlement form from the insurance company and fill all the details. Along with the form he/she needs to attach all the documents along with the form. The list of all the documents required is given below:

• Original Policy document
• In the form, it is asked whether claimant is a nominee or not ? If not then claimant needs to prove that he is a legal heir of the deceased by submitting the “Will” or if there is no will then it has to be proven by Succession laws.
• If  claimant is a Nominee then Nominee ID proof establishing the relationship between nominee and person who died has to be provided.
• Notarized death certificate of the policy holder (deceased)
• In case the death happened in the hospital, document of hospital
• Copy of claimant’s current address proof

In case of Accidental Death along with the above documents following are to be attached:

• Hospital certificate
• Post-mortem Report
• FIR copy
• Final report of police
• Newspaper cutting if any
• Driving license of the person if the death happened while driving due to the accident
• In case of death outside India, was the deceased buried or cremated abroad? If yes, enclose a copy of the burial/ cremation permit.

It is very important to keep the acknowledgement slip mentioning all the documents which were submitted because it may be required for compliance of claim settlement.

Settlement of claim

As you now know how to claim, the next question will be how much time will it take to get the money? So, for this read the provisions on claim settlement provided by IRDAI.

As per the regulation 8 of the IRDAI (Policy holder’s Interest) Regulations, 2002, the insurer(company) is obligated to settle a claim within 30 days of receipt of all necessary documents including extra documents sought by the insurer. If the claim requires further investigation, the insurer needs to complete its procedures within 6 months from receiving the written intimation of the claim.

Where to go if there is a dispute between the claimant and the insurer?

In many cases, life insurance claims have been delayed or denied due to lack of proper documentation. So, make sure that your claim should not be denied due to this. And even after this claim settlement is delayed then there is a special court called Ombudsman of IRDAI where all claim related disputes are solved. So if the claimant feels that they are being cheated or the claim is rejected despite submitting all the required documents then the claimant can approach the Ombudsman of IRDAI.