Here’s a life insurance story to make your day.
Each year, John Milder who lived in Devon, England was notified by his insurance company that the policy on Betty Rose’s life was due for renewal and that because Betty had aged by another year, her premiums would need to be increased. He never thought for one minute about why Betty’s premiums went up as she aged, he simply accepted it. And each year John renewed the policy on Betty’s life.
John had taken the policy out on Betty's life 23 years before and in the event of Betty’s demise, he was listed as the policy owner and the person to whom the proceeds of any claim would be paid out. Everything looked very straightforward and normal. Nothing out of the ordinary at all. A simple term life insurance policy that John paid for every month of every year without fail for 23 happy years.
Then one day the inevitable happened. The insurance company received a claim from a bereaved John. The claim form indicated that Betty’s ‘cause of death’ was the consequence of a severe storm but that there was the small matter of a missing death certificate. The insurance company’s claims manager went directly into overdrive, and after a thorough but relatively quick investigation got to the bottom of the problem.
Turns out, Betty Rose was a sloop… yes, a boat, incorrectly covered for 23 years under a life insurance policy! You’d have to wonder about that slick insurance agent... wouldn’t you?
