The biggest nightmare people might faced when it comes to insurance policies, is the Lapse of the Policy. This is primarily due to the non payment of premiums. No I shall relate a personal experience of mine and hope that it may be usefull for others.
My father had a Insurance policy, from L.I.C., and the policy was always handled by his agent Mr. Ashok Kumar. He had been paying the premiums on a semi annual basis, i.e. once in six months. The payments were always made by him in cheque form, to his agent who in turn did the needfull immediately. The paymnets were made by my father, regularly for four years. And then he did not pay the premiums, for two years, i.e. four semi-annual premiums. Despite the continuous request from his agent in the form of telephone calss, letters and E-mail, my father had not payed the premiums and effectively the policy had lapsed.
Due to certain disagreements my mother and I had seperated from my father and his sudden demise in 2000 July came around as a real blow. At this point I was forced to take charge of the family finances and not knowing the fact that he had not payed the premiums, I had applied in person for the Insurance. The officer who made the necessary verifications, gave me the shocking news that the policy had lapsed and there was nothing he could do to help me. At this point I contacted his L.I.C. agent, and it was he who had given me a great advice.
He gave me positive information that there was a Special Humanitarian Tribunal, in the L.I.C., which comprised of retired people from various high ranks in the community. (Their identities are not known). And that it was the job of this Tribunal to peruse certain special cases, with proper evidence and justification, and finally pass a judgement if a full or partial settlement could be made by the L.I.C. In my case I had the coroners report, my fathers post mortem report, his Bank account details (Statements Of Account), and the written testimony of our neighbours with regards to his charecter and habits. Honestly I feel bad about having to write about my own father this way, but this is an experience that had really affected my life and I realise that there might be many more like me. The simple fact put is my father was a chronic alcoholic and that finally was the cause of his demise.
Armed with all the necessary paper work and the kind support of his agent, I had applied to this tribunal, in september 2000. The tribunal made the necessary enquiries, at the banks where he had his accounts, at his office, and also at our residence, enquiring with our neighbours. The enquiry members where officers of the L.I.C. who had visited the people who had been kind enough to give me written testimonies. After all the necessary enquiries and deliberations, the Tribunal passed its judgement and I received a letter in effect from L.I.C., informing me that the Tribunal was moved by my plea and the information furnished by me and they had ordered the Regional Manager of L.I.C. to make full payement as per the policy terms. An Amount of Rs. Five Lakhs.
I write this review in the sincere hope that someone who faces a similar problem like I had faced may find this information usefull. If the details of my petition and official protocol are required, kindly mail me and I shall furnish the necessar details, to the best of my knowledge.
NOTE THE INFORMATION I FURNISH ABOVE IS NEARLY FIVE YEARS OLD AND THERE MIGHT BE A REMOTE CHANCE THAT THE L.I.C. HAS CHANGED ITS APPROACH IN SUCH CASES, BUT IT IS MY BELIEF THAT THE TRIBUNAL IS FULLY FUNCTIONAL EVEN TODAY AND THE CORRECT INFORMATION WILL BE FURNISHED BY YOUR L.I.C. AGENT