Insurance companies are facing challenges in settling claims of the Ahmedabad Air India plane crash victims last week as in many cases the policyholders and nominees both have died in the tragedy.
There are instances of an entire family perishing or one of the spouses dying in the horrific June 12 crash of the London-bound plane, which claimed the lives of 241 persons on board and 29 on the ground.Immediately after the accident, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRADI) asked insurance companies to verify details of the deceased with their database on issuance of the overseas medical insurance, personal accident and life insurance policies.
The advisory also stated no claim was to be denied or delayed due to procedural formalities in the case of confirmed deceased individuals from the passengers' list and persons at buildings affected by the crash.Accordingly, major insurers like the Life Insurance Corporation of India, New India Assurance, HDFC Life, Iffco Tokio General Insurance, Bajaj Allianz GIC and Tata AIG Insurance have set up their help desks at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital to expedite the process.
The task becomes difficult when both the insured individual and the nominee die, like in the case of air accidents, representatives of the insurance firms maintained.Shukla said in normal circumstances, they seek a succession certificate when both the insured individual and the nominee have died. As a special case, the company has now made an exception."If both the insured as well as the nominee have died, we look for class one heirs, which is typically blood relatives like children.
Prakash Khanchandani, administrative officer with The New India Assurance, said the company has so far received seven claims --five related to personal accident policy and two of the marine cargo on board. It has settled one marine cargo claim of Rs 6.50 lakh.
In cases of personal accident policy, the nominees are yet to submit their details as they are still in the process of disposing of the bodies, he said.
Bajaj Allianz regional manager Nimish Joshi said the company has received four claims related to the crash victims.
One is a marine cargo claim of Rs 55 lakh which has been settled. The remaining three are travel insurance policies of Rs 10 lakh each and those claims have also been settled, he added.
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