Received this question from a policy holder regarding the Swine Flu pandemic and Life Insurance...
Hi Ed,
Both, my wife and I have signed a life insurance with Pinnacle some time last year to cater for each other and our little daughter.
We were wondering if your policy does have some exit condition that prevents you from paying out the agreed sum in case of a death that has been caused by a pandemic. Can you please provide some clarification on this?
Also important to note [it] might be the fact that with H1N1 looming around the corner you are likely to receive more claims on average than you expected in normal circumstances. How does this affect the insurance business in general? Is the possibility that insurances might not be able to pay out any more claims at some stage because they have been receiving too many claims for pandemic (or big natural disaster) reasons?
Strange questions I know, but you have to ask your life insurer this kind of stuff. Don't you?
Cheers, [Name withheld]
Good question, no?
Life insurers exist to pay your claim if you die.
Pinnacle Life has no ‘exit clause’ if you succumb to H1N1 or any other type of flu for that matter. So if you die from H1N1, you’re covered.
Life Insurers generally have their policies backed by large reinsurers who are big enough and diverse enough to withstand pandemics such as H1N1.
In this respect, Pinnacle Life is Reinsured with Hannover Life Re, one of the largest reinsurers of life insurance in the world.
Still, we hope you don’t get Swine Flu… we hear it knocks you around, although only a small percentage of people are actually knocked out.
