Life insurance basics – What happens after I pass away?
Published on Mon Sep 3 2018 in Family
When buying a life or funeral insurance policy, people often think about what might happen to their family once they’re gone. But what sometimes gets overlooked, is how exactly family members claim an insurance benefit once you have a policy set up. Knowing how to navigate the claims process could be helpful for your family. As a policy holder, there are steps you could take now to make things a little easier and quicker for your loved ones, when the time comes.
A step-by-step guide to making a claim
1. Contact us
The first step to making a claim on a life or funeral insurance policy is contacting our Customer Care team. This lets us know to stop taking payment for premiums and saves your family the trouble of waiting for a refund of any that were accidentally paid after you’ve passed.
One of our friendly Customer Care Specialists will also help your family start a claim. Our claim forms are available online, but we can email or post the right one out if they’re unsure which to use. Our team can also answer any questions your family may have about the paperwork we’ll need to process a claim.
2. Gather supporting documents & fill out the claims form
Before processing your claim, we’ll need some proof to help back it up. This usually means sending certified copies of important documents that show a few things:
- When and how you passed away. This might be a copy of the death certificate or a coroner’s report.
- Your age. This can be any official document that includes your name and birthdate, such as a copy of a birth certificate, driver’s licence or passport.
- Who the person making the claim is. This could include a copy of their birth certificate, driver’s licence or passport. We may also ask them to show how they know you by providing other documents like a marriage certificate or copy of your Will.
A Customer Care Specialist can help your family fill out the claim form. They can also explain the supporting documents we’ll need in more detail, including where to get certified copies and what to do if a birth certificate or other important document is written in a foreign language.
3. Send in the claim form and supporting documents
The sooner the paperwork is completed and returned, the sooner we can start processing the claim. Momentum Life has a dedicated postal address where everything can be sent. Your family can also scan and email the claim form and supporting documents to us to help speed up the process.
4. Wait to hear back
Being patient can be hard, especially if your family needs money to take care of pressing business (like paying for a funeral or settling final debts). We understand this and have streamlined our claims process to help pay valid claims as quickly as possible.
Getting the benefit from a funeral insurance policy can be especially fast, often as soon as two days after the completed paperwork is received. Life insurance may take a bit longer, but some policies offer a smaller advance payout to help with funeral costs whilst the rest is being sorting out.
5. Seek professional advice
Once your family has received the benefit from your policy, they may want to seek financial advice. This could be particularly important if they got a large lump sum payment. An accountant or similar financial consultant could help them make decisions about wisely investing, saving or spending the money.
How to help your family now
Whilst you won’t be there to help guide your family through the insurance claims process, there are a few steps you can take now that could help:
- Keep your life or funeral insurance policy up to date. Your policy will be cancelled if the premiums are not paid on time, and your loved ones won’t be able to make a claim if this happens. Setting up direct debit or updating bank card details when you get a new one could help keep this from happening.
- Let someone you trust know about your policy. Your family won’t know to make a claim if they don’t know you have a policy! Let a trusted family member or friend know that you’ve taken out a policy with Momentum Life or leave instructions for the executor of your Will.
- Store your policy documents in a safe place. If you prefer to keep your policy private, you can instead store the policy documents with other important paperwork that will be located after you’ve passed. This might be in a safety deposit box, or with a solicitor or accountant.
At Momentum Life, we understand that claim time is a difficult and emotional time for your loved ones. That's why our dedicated team is here to help, working hard to make the process as stress free as possible.
About Author: Momentum Life is a leading provider of Life insurance and Funeral insurance in New Zealand.
TAGS:
The content provided in this article is for information purposes only. The information is of a general nature and does not constitute financial advice or other professional advice. To the extent that any of the content constitutes financial advice, it is limited to Momentum Life products only and does not consider your specific financial needs or goals. You should consider whether the information is appropriate for you and seek independent professional advice, if required.
All product information is correct at the time this article was published. For current product information, please visit the Momentum Life website.