What problems did people with life insurance Louisiana have after Katrina?
Maggie
Lafayette, LA
In a matter of minutes, a lot of holders of life insurance Louisiana lost their policies literally. Most were destroyed when the storm hit. As a result, a lot of them had problems claiming their benefits. At that time, claimants where finding it hard to get their benefits because they didn’t have the right documentation. Insurance companies require beneficiaries to present the policy. The alternative was to present a death certificate. Even then they had problems with those.
What some insurers did on order to help ease this problem was just ask for an affidavit from either the director of a funeral home or from family members that managed to survive. Some companies simply required claimants to have hospital records and a medical certificate from a physician just in case they are unable to get a death certificate.
There were also insurance companies, like New York Life, who offered emergency loans against the cash value of a life insurance Louisiana. What was really interesting about these loans was that they weren’t offered in your typical standard life insurance policies. It wasn’t even available in term life policies. Further, it did not have any other requirements like in a bank loan where you needed to provide credit information or security. The only catch to these loans was that they carried interest. If something happened to the policy holder before the debt was paid, the beneficiaries of the policy will still get the benefits but less the amount due to the loan.
Those who didn’t have life insurance however had no choice but to see if they had any group life insurers through their employers.
Life was indeed hard for those who were affected by Katrina. Those with life insurance Louisiana were able to overcome some of the problems that emerged mainly because of their decision before to be covered.