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Lincoln heritage is actually the worst at answering the phones. Takes 10 minutes min. to get through.
Former LH Agent Needs Guidance
- Thread starter maness
- Start date
Lincoln heritage is actually the worst at answering the phones. Takes 10 minutes min. to get through.
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I got through the typical phone calls with LH pretty quick friday, thanks LH!
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I only have my own experience not any formal study. But I have worked closely in funeral homes for 20-years. For 5 of those years I was the person who helped people file their death claims after a death. I first became aware of of LHin 1998. My initial impression of them has never changed.
LH's first FE product met with failure even though their premiums were higher than most. LH's PreNeed funeral insurance product failed out. Their current FE product was commonly clean-sheeted for years. I understand that they have cleaned it up a bit. Maybe that will help with their claims. But I'm sure that LH does not give the agents statistics on how many claims do not get paid. I would expect it to be much worse than average.
As far as the companies that seem to pay most contestable claims, all the fully underwritten companies do well obviously. For simplified issue I's have to say Monumental/TransAmerica stands out in my mind. Settlers has come through on the ones I've seen. But I haven't seem very many with them. Amazingly Aetna has done pretty good if you forgive that they are crazy slow. But with their lack of underwriting up front you wouldn't expect them to pay very well.
For a couple of years I traveled around and trained agents in 50 funeral homes in three states. During that time LH was pitching their pre-need insurance heavily so their name came up a few times. No one was ever impressed with their paying of claims. It was basically a given that if there was a death in the first 2-years, it wasn't going to pay. After 2-years they pay fine. But all companies do.
LH isn't alone in denying a lot of contestible claims. A lot of companies do. But LH is the only one of those that I hear over and over from their green agents about how good they pay. The other bad ones just don't talk about it.
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Newby you better than anyone have seen how thousands of death claims work . If I'm not misunderstanding you it almost sounds like a contestable death claim results mostly in a Denied claim?As I've preached for a long time the apps of cos leave tons of ways to wiggle out of a claim. Doctors records are much more detailed and negative than many insureds realize to protect their ass. This makes it difficult for the agent as he's the person in the middle and will get the grief.How does a funeral home handle a policy on the contestable period ? Even if paid it could take 6-8 months. Do they just wait for their money or require something up front? If the claim is denied how does the funeral home handle that ? Do they set up a payment plan for 5 or 10 yrs and do they charge interest ? Do funeral homes eat a lot of loses on contestable claims ?
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1. Only a very small percent of policies that funeral homes deal with are contestable.
2. It's very unusual for someone to truly qualify for a 1st day coverage policy today and die a non-accidental death within the next 24-months. It happens but it's not an every day occurrence.
3. The majority of companies don't "wiggle out" of paying claims. If they do not pay, it's clear that the applications were not answered correctly. I haven't personally seen any that were gray. It was crystal clear that the person lied on the application. For instance, I had an LH death claim where the man was mostly bed ridden and had been on kidney dialysis for the last three years of his life. He was six months in with a preferred rate LH policy when he died. No company would pay that one. But most would have never approved it to start with.
4. Most funeral homes do not wait for their money in 2016. They know if they are not paid up front there is a huge risk that they will never get paid. Non-assignable insurance = no insurance. Contestable policies are not acceptable to assignment companies.
5. There is no such thing as a payment plan for 5 or 10 years at a funeral home after a death. Funeral homes are smart enough to know, if the family was not responsible to set up a payment plan ahead of time they are not going to make that commitment after the funeral is over. Funeral homes that are poorly run may eat Contestable claims. Most don't don't because they don't accept them.
6. Most funeral homes do some free work for indigent people. But they don't expect to be paid on those.
7. If an agent works clean he should rarely have contestable claims on 1st day coverage policies. It just shouldn't happen often at all. Much of our customer base can be led to lieing on an application. But if the agent sets the tone that it's unacceptable to do that, most applicants will be honest. I always set the tone that I can help you find the best rate that you truly qualify for. And I have no problems. I sleep good at night. If an agent has a pattern of applicants lieing and turning into contestible claims, I would question what that agent is saying on the appointments.
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Had an acquaintance who died in a contestible time. Funeral Home stated "we need secure payment" which was a nice way of saying your insurance is useless.
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That is pretty much what any funeral home will do.
So a beneficiary with a contestable policy must set a payment plan up or does the funeral home require the whole payment up front ? If so how does a dirt poor beneficiary pay this?Also I disagree contestable claims are as rare as you say. With co's like Trans and Kskj so aggressive and taking so many ailments dieing in that first 2 yrs is very possible. Some of the people Trans takes is amazing.And this has to be a problem with many co's. Columbian has a 1 page communique on contestable claims saying its a big problem in the industry and say they monitor agent death claims monthly and will terminate agents with a lot. 5 star says they'll terminate agents with more than 2 or 3 contestable claims in a yr.
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Dirt poor beneficiary? Let me introduce you to "direct cremation" for under $2,000. There are places in town here that'll do it for $799.
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