For any Cornhusker State life insurance policy owner, Life Ant is here to help you understand your rights. If you are in the market to purchase new life insurance or if you already own a policy, here is a guide to the important rules and regulations that are sure to affect you at some point during your life insurance policies’ life.
Nebraska Rules and Regulations
Nebraska regulates it’s life insurance under Chapter 44 of the state Statues. These rules provide protection to both life insurance policy owners and insurance companies.
Free Look Period
The Free look period given to Nebraska residents is mandated to be a minimum of 1o days. This protection to policy holders allows them to “test drive” a new insurance policy. If they don’t like what they see, the policy can be returned for a full refund. The insurance company can not charge any fees or penalties for doing this, and they must return all premiums paid immediately.
Grace Period
Being a little late on a bill happens to everyone. Sometimes there might be a tight week or two with money, sometimes it may be an oversight, and sometimes it could be an error made by a financial institution. Whatever the reason, if an owner of a life insurance policy is a little late on a payment, that does not allow the insurance company to deny claims if they are filed. In Nebraska, the state requires companies to provide at least a 31 day period of time after a missed premium payment where the life insurance policy will still remain in force.
Guarantee of Cash Surrender Value And Death Claim Payouts
In the unusual case that an insurance company can not pay a death claim, or becomes insolvent and is not able to reimburse a cash surrender value, Nebraska provides some backup coverage. The Nebraska Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association is an associate whose sole purpose is to reimburse policy holders in this event. Be warned though, that there are limits to this safety net. The maximum death benefit coverage is set at $300,000, and the maximum loss of surrender value coverage is limited to $100,000. This is why we always recommend that you only purchase life insurance from financially strong companies.
Timely Payment of Death Claims
Nebraska wants to make sure that all beneficiaries are compensated relatively quickly. To facilitate responsive payments from life insurance companies, Nebraska requires that any claim outstanding for more than 30 days begins to accrue interest. This leads to most death claims in Nebraska being paid out in an efficient manner, usually within about a month or two of the death certificate being received by the insurance company.
Responsiveness To Inquiries
Nebraska has a somewhat unique law on the books requiring insurance companies to respond to any policy hold inquest within 15 days of receiving this request.
Nebraska Department of Insurance
Telephone: 877-564-7323
Website: www.doi.nebraska.gov
Nebraska Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association
133 South 13th Street
Lincoln, NE 68508
Telephone: 402-474-6900
Website: www.nelifega.org
