Do Divorce Orders Preempt ERISA Life Insurance Beneficiary Designations? In the last year or so, I have had clients with this question. The short answer is most likely no.   The reasoning is twofold. First, ERISA requires that insurance company’s pay out benefits consistent with the terms of the plan. Most life insurance policies state that ...

Independent medical exams (IME), neuropsychological testing, and functional capacity exams (FCE) have long been a part of disability reviews.  However, in the last couple of years, I have noticed a great increase in the numbers requested by insurers and I expect, because of some court rulings, for that number to rise.  These exams can be ...

A question that I frequently receive from clients is “why does this process take so long?”  When an individual has been denied his or her disability benefits, the financial situation can often go from bad to worse. As with most types of civil litigation, ‘speedy’ is rarely a word that can be used to describe ...

I am writing this post because I think it is important for clients and potential clients to be able to distinguish between a claim for STD (short term disability) benefits and a claim for LTD (long term disability) benefits.  An individual should file a STD claim when he/she anticipates being out of work for a ...

I had a professor in law school that would frequently use that quote when describing various components of the legal process. As unfortunate as it may be sometimes, it often rings true.  We live in a fast-paced society that is only getting faster. Between two-day, online delivery and lightning-quick smartphones, consumers want, and expect, everything ...

Today’s world is dominated by social media.  Many clients do not realize, however, that social media can have an adverse effect on a short term/long term disability claim.  There has been an increasing trend by insurance companies to use social media, in part, to deny an individual’s disability claim.  It is an important trend that ...

A frequent issue that arises at the onset of ERISA claims is the ability of a client to get a statement from his or her treating physician to be used in support of the claim of disability. Getting a statement from your own doctor is a crucial step in the process. Moreover, the language in ...

This is a question I get asked quite often by clients of mine who are State of South Carolina employees.  When a long term disability claim is denied for a State of South Carolina employee, there are two levels of appeal.  The first level of appeal is to Standard Insurance Company.  If Standard denies the ...

I’m a little bit behind from the holidays in posting the approvals that we received at the end of last year, but please see the below list.  If you have a denial of benefits from any of the below insurance companies or have a similar medical condition and have been denied, please feel free to ...

Most of the disability cases that come to us are still in the appeal phase.  What that means is we have an administrative appeal that must be exhausted prior to filing a lawsuit in Federal District Court.  While I normally explain cases to potential clients, by giving them a worst case scenario, administrative appeals are ...