To keep your life insurance policy in force, you generally must pay premiums to the carrier on a regular basis. Premiums will normally be paid monthly, quarterly or according to some other level of frequency. If you fail to make a premium payment, your policy can lapse and coverage will be lost.

Policy LapseWhen a premium payment is due, Florida law provides that the insured must be afforded a grace period of at least 30 days in which to pay the premium after the due date. This grace period rule is codified under Section 627.453, Florida Statutes. If the premium payment is not paid, and the grace period has fully run its course, the policy will lapse.

An issue that often arises in lapse cases is whether or not the insured was entitled to receive notice from the carrier of the obligation to make a premium payment or of the impending cancellation of the policy. Generally, the delivery of a notice of premium due or of an impending cancellation and the manner in which the specific notice is to be furnished, if at all, are governed by the policy terms. The interpretation of policy terms can often be a point of dispute in litigation.

In Best Meridian Insurance Company v. Tuaty, 752 So.2d 733, the insurance carrier alleged that it had records of sending several notices to the insured of his nonpayment of premium on a life insurance policy. A notice of cancellation was eventually sent to the insured in December 1995. A few months later, though, the insured sent notice to the carrier to change the beneficiary of the policy and the carrier processed and confirmed the beneficiary change (even though the carrier had apparently cancelled the policy a few months earlier). When the insured died in April 1996 the carrier denied the claim saying that the policy had been canceled due to nonpayment of premium.

With Irving drawing the opposing center or power forward out of the play, Tristan Thompson or commander cialis raindogscine.com Kevin Love often swoop in for an offensive rebound and uncontested putback. Some with the side effects noted are headache, flushing, dyspepsia, nasal congestion and impaired vision, which include wholesale cialis canada photophobia and blurred vision. She will certainly remember the old days when canada tadalafil you both rested & relaxed. Individuals viagra for women online drive a long separation to their work environment and once in a while need to put in hours just to fly out from home to office. The beneficiary, however, argued that the carrier never provided to the insured the required notice of nonpayment of premium. The issue in the case was whether the notice was effectively delivered. The insurance policy in the Tuaty case provided that notices were deemed delivered when mailed. The Court interpreted the notice provision to mean that notice to the insured was deemed delivered when mailed, even if the insured did not actually receive the notice. In other words, the carrier only had to prove with sufficient evidence that the required notices had actually been mailed to the insured.

In Aetna Insurance Company v. Settembrino, 324 So.2d 113, however, the court ruled that the cancellation of a policy had been based upon actual receipt (not mailing). Specifically, the issue concerned the effective date on which a fire insurance policy had been cancelled by the insurer when it gave 10 days’ written notice of cancellation to its insureds. The carrier had argued that the policy was effectively cancelled 10 days from the date of mailing of the notice. The insureds argued, however, that the policy was effectively cancelled 10 days from the date of receipt of the notice, which would have lengthened the coverage protection under the policy. The court ruled in favor of the insureds. Since the policy did not specify the method of the giving of written notice, the court reasoned that the effective date of cancellation is to be determined based on the date of receipt of the notice by the insured.

If your carrier denied coverage because your policy has purportedly lapsed, please contact the law firm of Joseph J. Rosen, P.A. for a thorough assessment of your claim. We will evaluate your insurance claim at no cost to you.

Filed under: Florida Business

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!