The widow of a police officer in Chicago was expecting to receive $300,000 from the death benefit of her husband’s life insurance policy. This did not happen, due to what is being called a “paperwork error”. She is not the only person who had this happen.
Life insurance is very important. It is what helps your family continue to live in the lifestyle that they were accustomed to after you have passed away. The death benefit pays for the deceased person’s funeral costs, and the medical bills that his or her health insurance policy won’t pay for. A life insurance benefit pays for the remaining part of your mortgage, so that your family won’t lose their home after you pass away.
A police sergeant in North Chicago named Dean Vincent called his employer to make sure that his life insurance policy was in order. He had undergone two heart surgeries in four month’s time, and was, reasonably, concerned about what would happen to his wife and children if he died. He wanted to make sure they would be able to keep their home after he was gone. He was told that everything was as it should be.
Oddly enough, the police sergeant died the very next day. He signed the life insurance policy with Fort Dearborn Life Insurance when he was health, years ago. It was supposed to pay his beneficiary, his wife, $300,000. Now, a year later, his widow is still waiting for the insurer to pay out $200,000 from the claim. A federal lawsuit has been filed on her behalf against the city of North Chicago.
A lawyer who represents Fort Dearborn Life Insurance says that no money was every collected for Sergeant Vincent. A pay stub from 2009 shows that $9.00 was deducted for the voluntary life insurance. When his widow called the insurer to find out why she only received $100,000 of the $300,000 death benefit, she was told that the city of North Chicago made an “error” and failed to process and submit the paperwork that would request a change in the benefit amount.
Not one person, who could act on behalf of the City of North Chicago, bothered to disclose to Susan Vincent that there was a problem. No one told Sergeant Vincent that there was anything amiss with his life insurance policy, or the benefit that it would pay out to his family. The new human resource director for the City of North Chicago, Angela McCray, told Susan Vincent that this type of situation had happened with “several people”.
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