My friend lost his brother (aged in late 20’s) in Dec 2019. They filed the term insurance claim during Feb last year. Despite submitting over 30+ documents (Aadhar, pan, passport, visa, bank statements, FIR, postmortem report, other medical reports, inquest papers, government hospital certifying cause of death and what not), numerous follow-ups and branch visits, investigation by their officer they are still waiting for the claim amount after almost 1.5 years.

The painful journey:

Feb 20: Filed Claim and submitted documents

~Apr 20: Investigation officer visited as it is an early claim and collected numerous documents/pics  (from bank st to visa copy to Police report, from family photo to shop photo)

~May 20: Claim suspended asking for cause of death document.

~Jan 21: Mailed police stamped copy of government hospital report certifying cause of death. HDFC life demanded them to visit branch to submit the same document (Really – my inner voice)..   

After numerous follow-ups,

~End Mar 21: Query demanded documents which were submitted to investigation officer in 2020 and FAMILY PHOTO (Really).

~Apr 21: Mailed and submitted the demanded documents.

After numerous follow-ups,

~May 21 : Claim suspension letter demanding for inquest papers.

~July 21 : Submitted inquest paper.

And Here comes their latest demand:

Aug 21: Policy and claim details of policy they have with ICICI Lombard (bank statement specifying payment to ICICI Lombard). AGAIN Really, ICICI Lombard policy – a GI company policy – what is the relevance.

In my view, it seems HDFC Life just delaying the claim by raising irrelevant and unreasonable demands.

Dear community can you please suggest:  Is complaining to IRDAI the only option for such claimants? Are these demands reasonable? Can claimant demand interest payments due to these delays?