Life Insurance Claim Attorneys for
ERISA Claims & Appeals, California Death Benefits Coverage

If your ERISA claim or California insurance claim for death benefits has been denied or long delayed, the San Diego law office of Stennett Casino can help you. We represent only insurance policyholders and injury victims, and we have years of experience in obtaining death benefits owed to our clients by life insurance carriers and ERISA plans.

We have helped clients obtain life insurance benefits from many major companies. We can help you with your life insurance claim against any insurance company, including:

We have found that life insurance companies often look for excuses not to pay benefits for which the insured has paid premiums for years, often decades. These excuses usually fall into one of two categories.

Life insurance applications ask many questions about the insured person's health history. The insurer typically requires the insured to have a physical examination before the policy is issued. If the insured dies within the next two years, the insurer will look very closely at the application, obtain the insured's medical records, and decide whether the insured made any errors in the application about his or her health history. If so, the insurer will probably deny the claim.

Our firm has helped many clients who were wrongfully denied life insurance benefits owed upon the death of their family member or business partner. We often find either that the insured person (now deceased) was not aware of the health condition that was misstated or not disclosed, or that the insured person forgot about the condition because it had been diagnosed long ago and/or there was no medical treatment of it. In some cases, the insurance company was not misled by the misstatement or omission, because its own physical exam revealed the health condition. In yet other cases, the misrepresentation had no relationship to the cause of death. In all of these circumstances, we have been successful in eventually obtaining payment of the life insurance claim either through settlement negotiations, an administrative appeal, or a court case.

Many life insurance policies pay benefits only if the insured died as the result of an accident, or pay additional benefits for death caused by accident rather than illness. Insurers often deny accidental death claims with the excuse that the death was not really "accidental" or that the policy excluded coverage based on the circumstances surrounding the death.

Often, these excuses are not legitimate. We have successfully handled cases where the insurance company improperly defined "accidental," or was unfairly selective about the law and evidence it considered in deciding whether the death was "accidental," or the policy exclusion the company relied on violated California insurance law and could not be enforced even if the claim fell under ERISA.

It is important for any person who makes a life insurance claim to know that they are not automatically "stuck" with an unfair claim denial, no matter what the insurance company or the policy itself says.

Sometimes, the potential beneficiaries disagree on who is entitled to the benefits of the insured's life insurance policy. The insured person may not have designated a policy beneficiary, or may not have changed the beneficiary after a divorce or a significant change in his or her will. When this happens, the life insurance company usually deposits the life insurance proceeds with the court, leaving the beneficiaries to fight over them. These complicated cases are often decided based on the probate law of the state where the insured's will or property is probated. We usually refer these inquiries to probate specialists - attorneys will represent one beneficiary fighting another beneficiary. Our specialty is fighting insurance companies who have wrongfully denied or delayed paying claims.

If your California or ERISA life insurance benefits claim was denied, and you think you may have been the victim of an unfair or improper claim denial, please call us for an honest, no-charge evaluation of your case. We will let you know quickly if we can help you. We are flexible on fee arrangements and where appropriate, often work under contingency fees (paid only from amounts awarded).

We are experienced claim attorneys and can help you by: