An independent contractor submits an application for a $750,000 key person life insurance policy on October 12. At the time of application, the contractor pays the full initial annual premium and the producer issues a conditional receipt. The policy requires an extensive medical examination, which the applicant successfully completes on October 19. On October 22, the contractor is fatally injured in an auto accident. Three days later, the insurer's underwriting department processes the medical exam results and determines that, due to pre-existing hypertension, the contractor was insurable but only at a substandard risk classification requiring a premium surcharge. How will the insurer handle the death claim?
- The claim will be denied and the initial premium refunded, because the applicant was not insurable at the standard classification applied for.Cevap
- BThe claim will be paid in full, because coverage became retroactively effective on October 19 once the required medical exam was completed.
- CThe claim will be paid, but the death benefit amount will be mathematically reduced to account for the required substandard premium surcharge.
- DThe claim will be paid in full, because the issuance of the receipt established immediate binding coverage on October 12.
Cevap
The insurer will deny the claim and refund the premium because the conditions for retroactive coverage under a conditional receipt were not met.
For a conditional insurability receipt to provide coverage prior to policy delivery, two conditions must be met: the required medical exam must be completed, AND the applicant must be found insurable at the standard or preferred rate they applied for. Because the underwriting department determined the applicant was a substandard risk, the insurer would have been required to make a counteroffer. Therefore, the strict conditions of the receipt were not met, no contract was formed, and the insurer's only obligation is to return the initial premium.
Adım Adım Çözüm
Anahtar Kavram
Conditional Receipt Rules and Substandard Risk