Life Insurance Advice: What if I lied to the Life Insurance Company?

Q: What happens if I lied to my life insurance company (or forgot to tell them about my skydiving career)?

A: It is never a good idea to provide false or incomplete information to your life insurance company. Not only is this practice dishonest, but your beneficiaries could end up getting nothing from your life insurance company if you die. After you purchase your life insurance policy, the life insurance company usually has two (in some cases three) years to cancel your policy if they discover that you have provided incomplete or untruthful information.

"We give consumers a one stop shop for all their life insurance information needs."

However, even if the life insurance company discovers that you falsified the information that you provided in your application, the life insurance company cannot revoke that policy after the first two years (in some cases three years).

During the first two years of your policy, if the life insurance company discovers that you provided false or incomplete information, they may:

  • Cancel the policy
  • Pay no benefits to your survivors if you die

After the first few years of the policy, then the life insurance company cannot cancel your policy. However, the insurance company can pay a lower amount to your beneficiaries if your cause of death was directly related to information that you falsely provided. For example, if you didn't tell the life insurance company that you were a smoker and you died of lung cancer, then the insurance company will probably only pay the amount of insurance you would have been able to buy if you were paying the rates for smokers.

 

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Life Insurance Tip!

You can have an old life insurance policy evaluated to see if you should keep it or replace it. Contact the Consumer Federation of America at 202-387-6121; for a small fee it can tell you if our policy is cost effective.

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