With my client sending employees to Iraq and Kuwait to service a government contract, the question about life insurance has come up. This group's current carrier has stated that any death claim for reasons including "act of war" will be covered, however AD&D, LTD & STD claims will probably not be covered. Curious to know if there are any carriers out there that provide a more liberal contract than what we normally see on the street (that might cover AD&D, LTD & STD claims when due to "act of war"). Feedback?

Incumbent Carrier's Position:
Our Group Life contracts do cover losses that occur as the result of war or
acts of war. Generally, Group Disability, Group Long Term Care, Accidental
Death and Dismemberment and Business Travel Accident contracts do not cover
those losses.


Does the contract exclude losses that occur as the result of war?

The response varies by coverage:

Group term life contracts: Contracts do not exclude deaths that
occur as the result of war or acts of war.

AD&D: Most contracts do exclude losses and deaths that occur as the
result of war or acts of war ("war" means declared or undeclared war
and includes resistance to armed aggression).

Short-Term Disability: Most contracts do exclude disabilities that
occur as the result of war, declared or undeclared, or any act of
war.

Long-Term Disability: Most contracts do exclude disabilities that
occur as the result of war, declared or undeclared, or any act of
war.

Long-Term Care: Contracts do exclude losses that occur as the result
of war or acts of war ("war" means declared or undeclared war and
includes resistance to armed aggression).


This particular case has the DAP contract. Therefore, the LTD would
exclude disabilities that occur as the result of war, decalred or
undelcared, or any act of war.

An AD&D example:
e.g#1. if the AD&D contract contained a war exclusion & the participant was
killed by an act of war, there would be no benefit payable

e.g.#2 - same AD&D contract - if the participant were on a military ship
and fell down a flight of stairs and were killed - benefits are payable

.....it's not a matter of "where" the insured is, rather it's "how" the
loss occurred.

Our Business Travel Accident coverage has a War Risk rider and with notification to the carrier of travel, and possible additional premiums we have coverage for travel in war risk countries. Example would be a recent trip by an employee to Algeria. Six days of coverage for $203. Our benefit is $200,000.