Your Employer Switches Insurance Companies for Disability - Can You Recover from Both Policies?

Before her health issues, the claimant was a distinguished attorney in Birmingham. Unfortunately, she developed chronic pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, and lumbar disc disease, conditions that deeply affected her professional life and daily functions.She applied for an began receiving disability benefits under her firm's LTD policy with Sun Life. That policy was replace by a new policy from Hartford. The new Hartford policy contained an exclusion clause specifying that a member of the firm was ineligible for disability-insurance payments if she was receiving “benefits for a Disability under a prior disability plan that: 1) was sponsored by [her] Employer; and 2) was terminated before the Effective Date of The Policy.” Because Sun Life was still paying Stewart disability benefits, Hartford found that Stewart was “receiving benefits for [a] Disability under a prior disability plan” that had been “terminated” before its own policy went into effect and, consequently, that she wasn't eligible for Hartford disability benefits.The claimant contended that plan documents permitted her to recover under both policies. The District Court agreed with Hartford and this is the argument in the 11th Circuit Court of AppealsThese public domain recordings are brought to you by Ben Glass Law, a national long term disability and life insurance firm headquartered in Fairfax, VA.By making these recordings into a "podcast," we've made the listening easier for claimants, attorneys and claims adjusters alike. If long term disability or life insurance benefits have been denied, we'd love to review your denial letter and give you a strategy for moving forward. This is a free service and you can go here to begin submitting your denial letter.