Consumers depend on insurance companies to provide financial support when it is needed the most. Life insurance policies can provide the resources necessary to allow grieving families to manage ongoing expenses and funeral costs. Disability insurance benefits are vital for individuals who can no longer pursue their careers due to accidental injury or illness.

In most cases, insurance companies pay benefits as agreed upon in the insurance policy. Some unscrupulous companies, however, collect premiums and fail to deliver the promised benefits to their policyholders. One of the worst alleged offenders in this regard is the Unum Life Insurance Company, which is now facing numerous disability insurance lawsuits for practicing bad faith insurance and denying their Unum long-term disability benefits.

Unum has written disability insurance policies for approximately 17 million Americans, making it the largest disability insurance provider in the United States. As one of the largest and most profitable insurance companies, Unum allegedly ensures its continued fiscal stability by routinely denying the rightful claims of its policyholders, especially by denying disability insurance to qualifying Unum policyholders.

Unum Insurance Claim Denial Tactics

Unfair disability insurance claim denial is an example of a way in which Unum has failed to uphold its duty as an insurer and has been one of the main claims brought forth in countless Unum bad faith insurance lawsuits throughout the nation.

Considering Unum has written some 17 million disability policies, they are allegedly responsible for systematically denying, stalling or terminating hundreds if not thousands of legitimate claims filed by their policy holders. Insurance experts have identified a number of tactics used by Unum to deny or delay qualifying disability claims filed by its policyholders.

Some of the most common methods reportedly used by Unum and other companies to avoid payment include the following:

• Misclassification: Unum has allegedly repeatedly misclassified claimants for disability benefits in an effort to disqualify them from eligibility for payments under their insurance contracts. Unclear and misleading language used in Unum’s disability insurance policies can often lead to extended delays or failure to pay on these contracts altogether.
• Altering the Contract: Unum has been accused of making changes to insurance policies without the prior authorization and consent of the policyholder while the coverage was still in force. These changes may have been made prior to the date of the claim or after the fact in an effort to avoid payment. In some cases, Unum reportedly never informed the policyholder of these changes at all.
• Misuse of Medical Experts: Some Unum policyholders allege that the company obtained opinions from medical examiners who were not properly qualified or knowledgeable in the particular injury or medical problem in question. In other cases, Unum may have contracted with third-party examiners to act on behalf of the company in denying claims without proper medical examination or in lieu of a true third-party examination by an unbiased medical professional.
• Delay Tactics: Unum is also accused of repeatedly requesting additional information and requiring claimants to fill out redundant and unnecessary forms in an effort to delay the processing of valid claims. By requiring policyholders to provide the same information over and over again, or by requiring visits to a specific and typically overbooked clinic, the insurer can increase the likelihood of errors on the part of the claimant that can lead to a denied insurance claim.

Unum Lawsuits

It may come as no surprise to some that Unum is listed as the second-worst insurance company in the United States. Numerous Unum lawsuits alleging the company engages in bad faith insurance practices regarding denied disability claims have been filed against the company. The majority of Unum bad faith insurance lawsuits seek compensation for policyholders whose claims have allegedly been improperly or unreasonably denied or delayed by Unum’s bad faith insurance practices.