The man-on-the-street’s guide to Insurance Notification Periods

What is a notification period?

In simple terms, a notification period is the amount of time that you have in which to report a claim. Insurance companies implement a notification period, during which you must notify the company that you have a claim. While the average notification period is approximately 6 months, different insurers apply different periods, and these may even vary by benefit.

So what does that mean for you?

Well, that depends on how strict your insurer is in applying the notification period cut-off. Some insurers have strict policies in place that ensure that – should a claim be submitted after the notification period has elapsed – no payment will be made. To ensure that your claim is submitted within the notification period:

• Notify your broker as soon as you have suffered a claim event.
• Make sure that you understand your policy documentation and any notification periods that may apply.
• Provide the correct documentation and information when you claim.

How does Altrisk apply notification periods?

Altrisk’s claims policy is based on fairness and solid ethics, and our claims assessors make every effort to pay claims. 

When applying a notification period, we look at the information provided in a late claim and – if the information provided is sufficient to assess the claim as we would have at the time of the incident – we will consider it.

Late notification of some claims will put the client at a disadvantage as the assessor will be working with out of date information and not able to get new medical assessments of the condition as it was at the claim date.

The longest concession that Altrisk has given was for a client diagnosed with prostate cancer 5 years ago that recently put in a late claim. Fortunately for the client the medical information in support of the claim was adequate and he was paid out.