Four insurers are under fire for declining to pay benefits

The country’s financial watchdog is clamping down on four major insurance companies for refusing to pay accidental death insurance benefits to policyholders, citing the statute of limitations law.

Samsung Life Insurance, Hanwha Life Insurance, Kyobo Life Insurance and Allianz Life Insurance face disciplinary action for not making payouts to the families of clients whose contracts passed the limitations period, the Financial Supervisory Service said. The FSS maintained that insurers should still pay because the benefits were mentioned in the contract. The FSS didn’t mention what action it would take.

The Supreme Court ruled in May that insurers could not deny accidental death benefits for suicide if the policy had been issued before April 2010. Many local insurers changed their definition of accidental death to exclude suicide, and applied the new definition retroactively.