Our investigation
Horace had two policies at the time of his death, but he had completed four applications for insurance between 2014 and 2017 following his diagnosis with diabetes. Each application asked about his lifestyle and health. We were able to obtain three of the applications and found no mention of his diabetes or other information relevant to his condition on any of them. We considered it unlikely the bank failed to follow the correct process on three separate occasions. In any event, the bank sent him copies of the questions and answers at the time and told him to review them and let the bank know if any information was missing. Despite English being Horace's second language, he had signed various agreements with the bank between 1995 and his death, all of which included acknowledgements that he understood the agreements. There was nothing to suggest he did not understand those agreements, or that he alerted the bank to this.
The estate said the bank had led Horace to believe new insurance policies were a requirement of new lending, but the bank’s records showed he had sought loans independently of his insurance applications. It also complained that the bank failed to warn him about the risk of cancelling existing policies. However, the only replacement policy of consequence was a policy taken out in 2014 replacing the policy pre-dating his diabetes. We lacked sufficient information to determine what was discussed in 2014, including about whether he was warned about the risk of replacing a policy, but we noted that the answers he gave on his application at that time suggested he had a clean bill of health and that replacing his existing policy would not have any impact on his coverage or any subsequent claim.
Outcome
We did not uphold the estate's complaint.
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