Legal Question in Insurance Law in Pennsylvania

Suicide as preventing payout by life ins. policy

You need to look at the policy. Most that I have encounteredhave a "2 year" suicide clause. This means, generall,that if the policy is less than 2 years old ANDthe insured commits suicide, the policy won't pay.This is to prevent me from buying a policy today, payingone premium, and then killing myself for the benefitof my family. (insurance companies are always looking outfor our best interests, aren't they.)

I imagine there may be some policies with an absolute exclusionor exclusions for death by illegal drugs. Moststates regulate the policies and may not allow such exclusions.

My advice--get the policy. If it apparently does exlude coverage,or if the Guardian denies the claim, consultan attorney in your area who practices in this area of law. Even if there is an apparent exclusion, there may be ways around it.

Good Luck!

Life insurance / cause of death

As Benjamin said, the insurance policy itself is the starting point for this question. It will contain a list of various exclusions and limitations.

Typically, an insurance policy on life will have a 2-year incontestability period. What that means is that after the policy has been in effect for two years, the insurance company can no longer rescind the policy in order to deny benefits. Before that time, they may deny coverage and refund the premiums paid if the cause of death was an undisclosed medical condition which pre-existed the policy application, or for suicide. Only if you are still within that two year period would it even be an issue whether the death was accidental or intentional.

But in any event, please accept my sympathies on your loss, and if you would like to call me to pursue the matter further, please feel free to do so.

The above does not constitute legal opinion and is offered for the purposes of discussion only. The law differs in every jurisdiction, andyou should not rely on any opinion except that of an attorney you have retained, who has a professional duty to advise you after being fullyinformed of all the pertinent facts and who is familiar with the applicable law.