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Business News/ Opinion / Online-views/  To ease claim process, never hide information from your insurer
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To ease claim process, never hide information from your insurer

If insurer finds that the illness is a result of a habit that is not declared, it may reject claim.

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Is car insurance policy transferable from a vehicle owned by me to a vehicle owned by my wife?

—Asim Tayal

Motor insurance is an easily endorsable instrument. But it can only be endorsed in the name of the person who owns that vehicle, which means the person whose name is there on the registration certificate of the vehicle. Thus, in your scenario, you can’t transfer your motor insurance policy to your wife as the other car is registered in her name.

I am 34 years old and I bought a medical policy six years back. When I took the policy I was a non-smoker, but since last year I have started smoking. Do I have to inform my insurer about the same when the policy is renewed this year? Will it increase the premium? What will happen if I conceal the fact?

—Jaiprakash

Yes you need to inform the insurer about your smoking when you get the policy renewed this year. When an insurer receives a claim application from you or the hospital, what they first do is go over the case history and look at signs that caused the illness. If it finds that the illness is a result of a habit or an addiction that you have not declared in the proposal form, they may cancel and reject the claim. Thus, it becomes important to disclose everything and this disclosure of smoking will hardly have an effect on your premium; they may technically rise by up to 5%.

Insurance works on the principle of utmost good faith. When a insurer receives your proposal form, he underwrites the risk on the basis of the information provided by you in the same as the insurer expects that you have stated all the material fact(s).

So in the short term, you may get a medical cover on the basis of your past clean health record, but if in future there is a claim that the insurer deems is a direct result of smoking, it may not honour the same and could say you had hidden this information from them.

Can valuables kept in a bank locker be covered under a householder’s policy? Do I need to declare the value to the bank and the insurer?

—Navya

Currently, very few insurers have tied up with banks to offer an insurance cover specific to contents of a bank locker. But such policies aren’t easily available. On the other hand, a regular householder’s policy would cover jewellery and contents at home and not in the bank locker. You need to declare the value in the householder’s policy.

Queries and views at mintmoney@livemint.com

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Published: 02 Oct 2012, 07:13 PM IST
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