Dallas Fort Worth Insurance Lawyer Blog
Accidental Death policies are common. The great thing about these types of policies is how cheap the premiums are. A person can usually buy a million dollars with of coverage yet pay less than $50.00 a month in premiums.
Here’s there is a downside to this types of policies and it’s a big downside. These policies rarely pay!
Accidental death policies almost always exclude death coverage when alcohol or drugs caused or contributed to the death. The “contributed to the death” is the operative language. The same language deals with pre-existing health issues the deceased may have had. The same language will deal with “conditions of the body”. And other language in the policy excludes almost all deaths except those deaths that result in an immediate death.
There are many sections of the Texas Insurance Code that deal with insurance policies in general and Accidental Death policies specifically.
In addition to other requirements that the Texas Department of Insurance may establish, individual accident and sickness insurance policies must include provisions regarding:
- terms of renewability
- initial and subsequent conditions of eligibility
- non duplication of coverage
- coverage of dependents
- preexisting conditions
- termination of insurance
- probationary periods
- limitations
- exceptions
- reductions
- elimination periods
- requirements for replacement
- recurrent conditions
The accidental death policy must also define its terms, including but not limited to:
- hospital
- accident
- sickness
- injury
- physician
- accident means
- total disability
- partial disability
- nervous disorder
- guaranteed renewable
- noncancellable
Further requirements regarding the form of the policy are outlined in the Texas Insurance Code, Sections 1201.051 to 1201.065.