Life may be better in Hawaii, but that’s no excuse for being uninformed about life insurance coverage. If you own life insurance currently, or if you are a prospective buyer, here is some important information about your rights.
Hawaii Life Insurance Rules and Regulations
Hawaii life insurance is regulated under Title 24 of the state statutes. Title 24 gives rights to both consumers and insurance companies and contains information that relates to you.
Grace Period
Hawaii provides consumers with a minimum 30 day grace period. This grace period requires insurance companies to pay a claim within 30 days of a late premium payment. This also means that a policy will not be cancelled due to a slightly late payment, which can happen from a simple error or mix up. Insurance companies must provide a grace period notification to their clients, and clients can bring their policies back into good standing if they make a payment during this period, without ever being left uncovered.
Free Look
The free look period in Hawaii is at least 10 days. This means that if a policy holder receives their policy, and decides that they do not want it after all, they have 10 days to cancel it and receive a full refund. This “test drive” period allows consumers time to consider their insurance policy carefully, and it is illegal for a company to charge any fees for a free look.
Interest On Death Claims
Hawaii does not give an exact deadline for how long an insurance company has to settle a death claim, but they do require that all claims are paid in a timely manner. To encourage the timely payment of claims, insurance companies are also required to pay interest for every day they have not paid, starting at the death of the insured. This provides a strong enough incentive to insurance companies so most claims are paid within about a month.
Guaranteed Claim Payments
It’s a rare occurrence, but in case an insurance company does become insolvent, Hawaii provides protection to it’s consumers. Through the Hawaii Life and Disability Insurance Guaranty Association a death claim payment is guaranteed up to $300,000, and your cash value is guaranteed for up to $100,000 of losses. This protection is provided per person, and even if that person has more value in death benefit coverage or cash value, even regardless of the number of policies owned, this is a maximum. We always recommend you only purchase life insurance from financially strong companies.
Privacy Laws
Hawaii believes in protecting the personal and private information of it’s consumers, and has strict rules regarding how insurance companies can share this information. Generally they consent is needed from clients to share any personal information with third parties, including health information. If a client requests health information be sent to a third party, insurance companies must share that information within a 30 day period.
Fines To Insurance Companies
Failure of an insurance company to comply with any rule or regulation under Title 24 can subject them to fines or sanctions.
Hawaii Department of Insurance
Telephone: 808-586-2790
Website: http://cca.hawaii.gov/ins/
Hawaii Life & Disability Insurance Guaranty Association
1132 Bishop Street, Suite 1590
Honolulu, HI 96813
Telephone: 808-528-5400
Website: www.hilifega.org