Legal Question in Insurance Law in Georgia

Re: Mandatory repayment of disability insurance

Diability insurance repayment is a matter of contract. Many, but not all, disability insurance policies have a provision in them that says if you get Social Security Disability benefits covering the same period you are getting disability insurance benefits you have to repay the disability insurance carrier for the amount of past-due benefits you recieve from SSA (or any other source ,for that matter, such as work comp ,etc.).However that should clearly be spelled out in the policy. Things get a little more complicated when the disability plan is through an employer and is governed by the Federal ERISA statute because then there is probably going to be a Plan booklet , Summary Plan Description or formal Plan Document that the employee may not have that also purports to control the policy. The insurers have a way of sneaking language into these documents sometimes that helps them screw the insured, too. But if the policy itself is silent on repayment I think you do not have to repay. Also, even if you do have to repay the insurer should have to eat the attorney fees for the Social Security lawyer who got you the SSA disability benefits. Finally, there should also be a clause in the policy that lets the insurer reduce the amount it pays you on a monthly basis in the amount of the SSA disability benefit. If no such clause is present they cannot do that either. Ron Lowry