Life Insurance Fraud Investigations

Life insurance is meant to ensure that bereaved people have the proper support following a loved one’s death. Unfortunately, like many other types of insurance, life insurance may attract fraudulent scammers who want to get a payout without following all the terms of a life insurance policy. An investigation into a doubtful life insurance claim may reveal one of these types of fraud.

 

Forgery

 

Forgery is the most common type of life insurance fraud. It typically involves someone forging documents to make it look like they are the beneficiary either before or following the death of the real policyholder. Insurance companies who keep proper electronic records can easily prove that these sorts of forgeries are false.

 

Unethical Agent Behaviors

 

Not all types of life insurance fraud involve policyholders and beneficiaries trying to take advantage of a life insurance company. Businesses also need to be on the lookout for fraud involving their own agents. These types of fraud can include things like an insurance agent pocketing checks from clients instead of using the funds to pay for the policy. Investigating agent fraud requires close monitoring of employees.

 

Altering Death Scenes

 

If a beneficiary is aware that a life insurance policy does not cover all types of death, they may be tempted to tamper with a death scene to make it look like the deceased passed away due to a reason of death covered by the policy. There is also a concern that some beneficiaries may go a step farther and be involved in the death of the insured person. The first step to investigating this fraud is carefully examining police and medical records surrounding the death, but in some cases, it can be hard to prove.

 

Faked Deaths

 

Faked death scams can range from a person taking a policy in their own name before going off the grid to someone making up a person and pretending that person has died. This type of scam might sound dramatic and exciting, but it is not as common as one might think. Faking a death is hard to pull off because it requires a person to falsify a lot of important documents and potentially hide their own existence.