Delayed Life Insurance Claim Lawyer

What should I do if I am experiencing a long delay with the life insurance company?

You should retain a life insurance lawyer immediately before your delayed claim becomes a denied claim. It takes much longer once the claim has been formally denied. If you contact us before the actual denial, we can typically convince the insurance company's claims representative to release the money within a week or two. Once your claim has been denied, we need to submit a 100-200 page legal brief directly to the insurance company's legal department, and then we have to wait another month for their decision.

What is the first question you should ask a delayed life insurance claim lawyer that you are thinking of retaining?

You should ask how many years they have been practicing. If they have been practicing less than 15 years, you have a problem.

How do insurance companies delay life insurance claims?

Insurance companies like to play games with you. They will request the same information over and over and over again. You may have been asked to submit a death certificate three or four times. The request for the deceased's medical records is their biggest game. By contract, the insurance company is allowed to retrieve your loved one's medical records without your authorization. However, they will likely ask you for a certain doctor's records one month, another doctor's records the next month, and so forth. However, they typically already have all the medical records!

Why do insurance companies delay life insurance claims?

The primary tactic insurance companies employ to prevent paying out claims is to delay payment on them until you get frustrated and give up. There is typically no legitimate reason to delay a claim, because if they had a basis to deny your claim, they would simply send you a denial letter within the week. They engage in a psychological warfare, and they have great success. You are distraught over the loss of your loved one, and the last thing that you want to have to deal with is fighting with a low-level insurance person. After they request the same information over and over, and after they ask for more and more medical records every month, the average person is just going to give up. Don't be one of the statistics. Retain a life insurance lawyer today.


The reality is that most life insurance claims get paid within a week or two of the company's receipt of the death certificate. There are people who call us after a month delay, and they want to wait longer before they retain us. Another month passes and they don't call us. There was one person who called us who had a delay of over a year! We recovered the full policy for them in 2 days. If your life insurance claim has been delayed, your best course of action is to retain us, so you can get the benefits to which you are entitled.

Should I retain your firm if my benefits have been delayed?

That is up to you, but even the most affluent people have a need for money. Why wait? You are only going to let the insurance company make more money from the interest on the money that they have not paid you. We have a reduced contingency fee for delayed claims, as we typically do not have to do as much work for a delayed claim as we do for a denied claim.

I have a delayed SGLI claim, what should I do?

We handle countless SGLI claims, as they are notoriously delayed, and we'll get them to cut your check.

I have a delayed TSGLI claim, what should I do?

Our firm also handles countless TSGLI claims, which without a lawyer can be delayed for months. Get us involved to get you the money to which you are entitled.

I have a delayed AD&D claim, what should I do?

Insurance companies like to play games with respect to AD&D claims, and typically will ask you to submit originals over and over. Our lawyers will stop this nonsense, and get you your money fast.

I have a delayed FEGLI claim, what should I do?

The office which handles FEGLI claims is one of the worst with respect to sending you money. It takes a life insurance lawyer to get them to pay up.

I have a delayed ERISA claim, what should I do?

You definitely should not deal with ERISA claims yourself, as one wrong move can ban you from ever getting your benefits. Our seasoned ERISA life insurance lawyers will get you the money that you are due, and fast.

What are the typical reasons insurance companies delay life insurance claims?

Insurance companies delay life insurance claims for many reasons, the most common being they are looking for a material misrepresentation so that they can eventually deny the claim. They may say that there was false information on the application. They can also say that the insured did not update them with their change of medical condition. The insurance company will take it's time trying to find an exclusion that will allow them to keep your money.

Typical exclusions include: sickness exclusion to a life insurance policy; suicide exclusion to a life insurance policy; self-inflicted injury exclusion to the policy; and felony exclusion.

The insurance company will also try to drag things out with respect to the beneficiary designations. They may say that someone else called who claimed to be a beneficiary. Checking to see if there are any issues with respect to divorce is another reason for delay. Checking to see if there was any trust is a common excuse. Looking to see if any community property law complications are at play is typical. If the beneficiary is a minor, they will certainly try to delay things.

Providing proper documentation is a common tactic as well. They may ask for your identification, and other documents several times to drag things out.


We work on a contingency fee basis, and we don't get paid unless you get your money.

What are some recent life insurance delay cases you have resolved?

(The delay in months is before they came to us.)

  • SGLI: 8-Month Delay $405,436.73
  • John Hancock: 6-Month Delay $102,475.34
  • Reliance Standard 4-Month Delay $50,498.25
  • ING: 2.5-Month Delay $
  • Mutual of Omaha: 9-Delay $51,259.51
  • Symetra: 1-Month Delay $102,937.09
  • AIG: 2-Month Delay $41,289.00
  • HSBC: 3-Month Delay 105,622.38
  • Unum: 15-Month Delay $314,836.42

You can learn about denied life insurance claims next.