Insurer refuses widow’s payout plea after husband took his own life
The £338,000 claim was denied because the 49-year-old died eight days before a clause expired
The widow of a 49-year-old architect who unexpectedly took his own life has appealed to an insurance company to treat her family “fairly and with compassion” after it used its small print to decline her £338,000 life insurance claim. Had his death happened eight days later, the company would almost certainly have paid the claim.
Billie Lee-Smith, who has two daughters aged 10 and 16, now faces having to sell what she thought was her and her husband Tony’s dream home. They had taken out the policy with the insurer Aegon, which was designed to pay off their mortgage should anything happen to either of them.
Had they stayed with their previous life cover provider of many years, that policy would have paid out