Injured? How to claim insurance

Shortly after the seven blasts on local trains killed 200 in Mumbai, people across the country are forced to do a financial rethink.

Questions like 'am I fully insured', 'does my family have enough financial backup in case they are faced with such a tragedy', 'what kind of insurance provides full security to me and my family', throng their minds.

In an attempt to address several such issues, here are some useful tips for you:

Always opt for a comprehensive insurance cover

A comprehensive insurance cover provides compensation for loss of life or injury (partial or permanent) caused by an accident. This includes reimbursement for treatment and hospitalisation expenses.

Also, only a fully comprehensive personal accident policy provides the partial or full disability and weekly compensation benefits.

Many people expect that if they buy a credit card, they are automatically covered for rail, road or air accident. But they must remember that credit card insurance is bound by a lot of terms and conditions. It entails a lot of clauses and exclusions.

A lot of insurance policies may exclude death/disability by acts of terrorism. Therefore, while buying new policies, a person should read and compare a few insurance companies' offers before zeroing-in on one. One must ensure that the policy does not entail extra clauses and exclusions.

Claim disbursement

Any insurance claim disbursement may take between 15 working days to a few weeks, after the necessary documents are submitted.

In case of personal accident policy, for instance, an insurance company takes about 15 days to complete the necessary investigation.

The buyer of an insurance policy should always mention the nominee's name clearly in his or her policy document. In case it is missing, the next of kin has to provide a succession certificate to make the claim.

Claims for any public sector insurance company can only be filed at the home branch, while in case of private sector companies, they can be filed at any branch.

Policyholders should keep the relevant documents at a safe place along with the agent's name and updated contact details for an easy access.

Also, policyholders' family must know where the documents are so that they can access them in case of an emergency.

Premiums should always be paid on time as it is extremely difficult to make claims against lapsed policies.

Papers which are required for claims under Personal Accident Policy in case of death offered by General  Insurance and Life Insurance Policy are:

• Claim form duly filled (available at any branch).
• A copy of the policy.
• Death certificate (in case of death).
• Post mortem report (in case of death).
• Hospital papers (This may be waived at times).

The author is an insurance and investment consultant, with many years of experience.