Mis-Selling of Life and Critical Illness Insurance

Around twenty percent of the cases we handle relate to the mis-selling of a life or critical illness policy. These often only come to light when people attempt to make a claim on a policy that highlights how bad things have been administered either by the insurance provider directly or a financial adviser/mortgage broker.

A customer might make a claim on critical illness insurance only to find key information around health or lifestyle has not been disclosed to the insurance company. You might also find that the policy did not cover the amount you were led to believe.

By far the largest culprit of this are ‘telephone’ brokers. You may have had a call pertaining to be from your insurance company and advising you it is time to review your insurance. They will often sell you a new policy that replaces your old one, either with a new provider or with your existing insurance provider. These calls are often unsolicited and can catch you by surprise.

We have recently had an elderly person who was contacted by one of these telephone brokers who advised they were calling from their insurance company to review their arrangements. The broker advised that if she did not update her policy, it might be invalid and that it was urgent, she carried out a review. This resulted in bother herself and her husband being sold a separate policy at double the cost they were already paying.

When the client went to claim on the policy it was found that there were several non-disclosures made on her husbands’ behalf. The insurance company then rejected her claim.

It is cases like this that undermine the protection industry. The client had a rejected life insurance claim due to the actions of a broker. Upon investigation we found that there were several regulatory breaches and were able, after going to the Financial Ombudsman, to secure a pay-out plus interest for the customer.

If you feel like you have been mis-sold insurance Resolute Claims offer a free checking service which will have a look over the paperwork and let you know. Call us on 0333 050 8792 for more information.