Life insurance might still be payable after a suicide

McDermott Law recently helped a client settle a tragic case involving his wife’s death and the insurance company’s failure to pay on her life insurance claim.

A young couple purchased life insurance to protect them if something terrible were to happen to the other. Less than a year later, the unimaginable happened when the wife — in a drunken stupor — fired a gun that ultimately took her life. The husband’s grief was made worse when the insurance company rejected his claim for benefits, citing the insurance policy’s provision that permitted it to deny claims when an insured dies by suicide within the first 12 months after the policy is taken out. Determined to fight for justice for his wife and his two young kids, the husband contacted McDermott Law for help, after reading stories online about how the attorneys at McDermott Law helped someone in a similar situation win their case in front of the Colorado Supreme Court.

Initially, McDermott Law attempted to get the insurance company to do the right thing by just paying the claim. However, rather than keeping its promise to protect its insureds, the insurance company ignored the law and the facts and decided to play hardball to protect its money. So, we sued. Ultimately, to keep the matter from going to trial, the insurance company agreed to resolve the dispute.

Every case the firm encounters is different, and we cannot guarantee that we can get an insurance company to pay a life insurance claim every time the insurance company denies a claim based on a suicide exclusion. But, if this story sounds familiar to you or a loved one, then contact the disability and life insurance attorneys at McDermott Law today to see if we can help.