The tragedy of the Susan Powell case is almost unimaginable. The wife and mother of two disappeared in 2009. Her husband, Josh, was a suspect but was never charged. Not too long after Susan’s disappearance, Josh killed himself and the couple’s two sons.
We are discussing a court decision about life insurance policy payouts under unusual circumstances. Generally, the insurance company pays the beneficiary as soon as it learns of the insured’s death. If the company cannot locate the beneficiary, it retains the payout for a set period of time before turning it over to the state. Florida has been instrumental in holding life insurance companies’ feet to the fire, so to speak, to make sure they actively search for the beneficiary.
We are discussing a court decision involving the life insurance policies of a family in Washington state. No, the case did not come out of Florida, and let’s hope nothing like it ever does. The situation is both heartbreaking and mind-boggling.
When Miami businessman Ben Novack Jr. died, his estate was worth about $10 million. He left everything to his wife, Narcy, but five years later, family members are still arguing over the will and its validity. And, the estate is worth much less, according to court documents — as little as $4 million.
An interesting and sad case crossed our desk this week. It concerns a case from outside of Florida that turned on an insurance rule that applies wherever you are: If you abide by the terms of the policy, the insurance company will consider your claim. Otherwise, the insurance company can deny the claim, and every court from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast will find the denial reasonable.
Insurance is a picky business. Insurers write policies that look generous but are, in fact, fairly narrow. For example, an insurer or agent may use the term “all peril” when referring to a homeowners policy. The average person would understand that to mean all perils: hail, famine, war, lightning, a terrorist attack and so forth. Any damage to your home caused by anything under the sun will be covered.
An insurance company has prevailed in an unusual dispute with a Florida condominium owner. The woman filed a claim with State Farm Florida Insurance Co. after an unpleasant incident in the unit above hers. Her upstairs neighbor died, and the body was not discovered for a couple of weeks. By that time, the body had decomposed to the point that the abdomen had ruptured, allowing bodily fluids to escape.
We cannot say it often enough: Read your insurance policies carefully. If you have a claim, follow the instructions laid out in the policy for filing that claim. And when you purchase a policy, carefully go through what it covers and what it does not cover.
The insurance claim form for the Titanic is going up for auction in the next week or so. It’s an interesting document, and not just for insurance types. The four pages completed by Second Officer Charles Lightoller offer a surprisingly clinical description of the disaster. Lightoller may have had a reason for his ho-hum tone, or he may have simply had a “Just the facts, ma’am” moment.
This week marks the 102nd anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. We wrote about some of the insurance issues a couple of years ago, when the disaster’s centennial prompted so much coverage. (See our April 2012, archive.) An auction house in England announced recently that it will be selling the original insurance claim form for Titanic at auction later in April. They expect to get about $20,000 for it.
