In March 2018, Nathan Ganas was murdered in his driveway in Durban, South Africa, during a botched hijacking; now Momentum, the insurer who wrote the 2.4m Rand (USD 170,700) policy on his life, is refusing to pay out because they say he didn’t disclose his elevated blood-sugar levels when he took out the policy — instead, they will refund the premiums Ganas paid during the four years he held the policy.
Ganas took out the policy in 2014 and the insurer took his blood for an HIV test at the time. Momentum will not say how they determined that Ganas withheld his knowledge about his blood-sugar levels, nor how they determined that he learned about the condition before taking out his policy.
Momentum says the decision is meant to avoid encouraging other customers from withholding information when they apply for a policy, because this leads to a “worsening claims experience.”
“Our position on this matter is the following, once we have evidence that a client has not acted in good faith, we rectify the matter in an objective manner, and in the interest of fairness to all our clients,” the company said in a statement.
“If we do not do so, we indirectly encourage the practice of non-disclosure. This will in turn result in a worsening claims experience which would ultimately increase the premiums for all our clients.”Ganas, 42, was killed during a hijacking in the driveway of his home in March last year, and his wife has maintained that she was not aware of his condition, according to a Daily News report.
Momentum sticks to its guns despite outrage over R2.4m life policy claim [Sibongile Khumalo/Fin24]
(Image: Andrew Kuchling, CC-BY)