What should I do if my mother forgot to disclose an illness on her life insurance application?

Question

I only became aware today of the question's title while organising old files today.
My family is Canadian.

A kind person but with poor memory, my mother bought Permanent Life Insurance in Summer 2014, but had first taken medicine for mental illness in Autumn 2009. Thus I asked her whether she disclosed this on her life insurance application, but she cannot remember. We also cannot find a copy of the medical questionnaire for the life insurance.

Thus I am thinking of asking the insurance agent to check if she recorded all of the above, because I know that the insured must be honest with the insurer. Is this the correct next step? I do not know if any "contestability period" affects my mother. Thank you everybody.

Answer 1

Thus I am thinking of asking the insurance agent to check if she recorded all of the above, because I know that the insured must be honest with the insurer. Is this the correct next step? I do not know if any "contest-ability period" affects my mother

Quite a few illness affect the insurance premium or validity. Hence it is important to disclose these and let the insurance company decide. Thus you should disclose this in writing to the insurance company and get a written confirmation. You could approach the insurance agent, however at times they are not motivated to do this service and may verbally tell you that its not an issue. Hence its advisable that you have documentary proof of this correspondence.

Depending on the insurance policy and terms, the insurance company may terminate the policy or keep it with increase in premium or keep the existing policy valid.

Answer 2

I'm sure that if you disclose this information to a rep from the life insurance they should understand. Given your mother's condition, things like this do happen. That is not to say that your policy might change or not, that would depend on the type of illness and how much of a risk the insurance company feels it is. Regardless, it's better for you to disclose this than to have the insurance company find out later, you run the chance of the insurance company not being as understanding since they might feel you were trying to trick them.