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Business News/ Money / Personal Finance/  A way to alter, update policies
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A way to alter, update policies

Endorsements are primarily used to add or remove information from a policy. While endorsement helps update or alter your insurance coverage, it can also be used to clarify the policy language or change details such as addresses or emails

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Did you know that with the help of insurance endorsements, you can make changes to the regular insurance policy while it remains in force? Endorsements are primarily used to add or remove information from a policy. While endorsement helps update or alter your insurance coverage, it can also be used to clarify the policy language or change details such as addresses or emails.

An endorsement is also called a rider at times. Udayan Joshi, president - claims and personal lines underwriting, Liberty General Insurance, said that endorsements happen primarily for change in address due to shifting, change in contact number or email id, correction of mis-spelt name, purchase of optional coverage to broaden your protection, etc.

Joshi added, “Upon receipt of a specific request from the insured, supported by necessary documents and applicable premium if any, insurance companies take such changes on record. The endorsement will be officially recorded through an endorsement certificate, which will show all the updated information."

An endorsement can be initiated during your policy term, at the time of policy purchase, or when you renew the policy. It is legally binding to an insurance contract.

In the case of health insurance, the endorsement is required if you are changing your occupation to a high hazard one. For instance, you are switching from an office job to a supervisory role in a steel furnace to a leisure sport like bungee jumping or skydiving, in such scenarios, you must inform the insurer immediately.

Vivek Narain, Co-founder & Promoter, Sana Health Solutions said that in case of a divorce, ensure to inform your health insurer to maintain continuity benefits such as waiver of waiting periods already served if the policy needs to be split-off. "In case of porting a health insurance policy, ensure that there are no wider endorsements than what you had earlier on pre-existing diseases in the original policy. Also, ensure that all changes agreed with respect to pre-existing diseases or otherwise are acknowledged by an endorsement on your policy," said Narain.

Make sure you follow timelines for declaration for midterm inclusions of spouse and children. Otherwise, the dependents would be covered only upon renewal.

In the case of motor insurance, an insurance endorsement is essential as it is required to make changes in the motor policy. Aatur Thakkar, Co-founder and director at Alliance Insurance Brokers, said, "The policyholder needs to present written evidence in case of policy changes; these pieces of evidence are called endorsements in motor vehicle insurances. The changes could be anything like registration number or vehicle details correction, adding external equipment's to one's car, making changes in personal details."

In the case of life insurance, the nomination changes can be done any time during the policy term by making an insurance endorsement. You must understand that the nominee name needs to be updated in sync with whom the policyholder wants to appoint as the beneficiary. It can be further cancelled or changed as many times as the policyholder may want. However, the last beneficial nominee surpasses all previous ones.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Navneet Dubey
Navneet Dubey is a personal finance writer and artist. Over the past decade, he has written feature stories on insurance, financial planning, lending and borrowing.
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Published: 30 Jul 2021, 12:18 AM IST
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