Unfortunately, our clients have died of all sorts of things, road accidents in foreign countries, misadventure, suicide, you name it. The recent news surrounding Gerry Ryan bothers me in several ways, firstly being that most of the headlines surrounding his life assurance payout are based on supposition and assumption.
That he took drugs, or may have had extreme stress leading to it are not the only deciders. The main things that usually jeopardise a claim are non-disclosure of drug use and/or any associated mental health issues eg: depression (which I am not saying he had, just that it is a common non-disclosure in the same way that nobody ever admits to using drugs on their proclamation form)
One life company has c. €1.5m on cover, if there is a €5m figure it is across other companies so (if that higher figure is anywhere near true) it may be that one company will pay and another may not, but then there is a precedent set for payment, obviously all of the factual medical evidence must be put together first.
This wouldn’t …