How do I make a Claim in a Life Insurance Policy? Insurance policies are bought for cover against unforeseen incidents in life. When such incidents happen, the insurance company pays the policyholder or the nominee a sum of money. This sum of money received from the insurer is known as the claim.

How is a claim paid out?

Before you can receive the money, you must file the claim. For this, you need to inform the insurance company about the incident that has happened and provide all the details and documents. The insurance company will then run a quick investigation and depending on their finding either decide to pay the claim or hold it back. The claim is only paid if the terms and conditions are in place and the policyholder has paid all the past premiums on time. No claim will be paid for a policy that has lapsed.

What are the different kinds of life insurance claims?

The claim process for life-insurance is detailed and you need to know the steps to get the claim. The different types of claims in life insurance are:

1. Death claim – Claim made by nominees of the deceased policyholder.
2. Survival claim – Claim made by policyholder for policies which offers interim survival benefit.
3. Maturity claim – Claim made by policyholder if he survives the policy period.

Even though there are 3 possible types of claims, the claim that worries people the most is Death Claim.

What is Death Claim?

The main objective of buying life insurance is to cover one’s life and ensure that even if death occurs, the dependent family members won’t suffer a financial blow. A death claim is an assured amount of money that will be paid out to the nominee of a policyholder in the event of the latter’s death. In most cases the policy terminates after the death claim is paid out, but in the case of certain types of life insurance plans, like child plans, the policy continues even after the payment of the death claim.

What is the procedure to receive the death claim?

The nominee first has to intimate the insurer about the death of the policyholder. Then, the nominee has to submit the required documents.

The necessary documents to file a Death Claim:

• Death Claim Intimation
• Original Policy Bond
• Policyholder’s original death certificate
• Nominee’s identity and address proof
• Name printed cheque of the nominee for bank transfer of claim amount

This is a very important step and without the proper documents, the insurance company will not process the death claim.

After the insurance company receives the documents, it may run an investigation to confirm that there wasn’t any foul play associated with the death. If all factors seem normal and the documents are in place, the death claim will be paid out in a few days.

Claim in an LIC Policy:

The claim settlement ratio of LIC is 98.14% which is the highest in the country. So, LIC traditionally has been very good in settling claims and the process is very well defined. The survival or maturity claim discharge forms reach the policyholder’s address 60 days before the due date and the claim is paid out to the bank account on the exact due date of the Survival/Maturity provided all the documents reach the LIC Office well within time.