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A mother who lost her teenage son has been left in financial limbo after the insurer denied her death benefit claim, declaring the policy void — just as she was counting on it to pay off mounting medical bills and debt.
YTN Radio's "Attorney Jo In-seop's Consultation" featured the story of the mother, identified only as A, on Wednesday.
According to the program, A, a nursing assistant, had been raising her 15-year-old son alone after her husband died. Worried about what might happen to him, she began looking into insurance and was introduced by an agent to a product combining injury and death coverage.
"The agent told me I just needed to write my name in the legal guardian field on the contract, and I signed up exactly as instructed," A said.
Then one day, her son was riding an electric scooter home with friends when he collided with a vehicle. He was admitted to the intensive care unit with severe brain trauma, and A did not leave the hospital for three months. She was unable to work, and the medical bills kept climbing.
"I barely got by on credit cards and loans. I did everything I could to save him, but ultimately he passed away," she said. "Debt collectors came the moment the funeral was over. I thought the insurance payout was the only way to cover the medical bills and what I owed."
The insurer's response was unexpected: it said it could not pay out because her son, the policyholder, had never given written consent.
"I asked whether my signature as his legal guardian wasn't enough, and the company said it wasn't," A said. "They told me that a death insurance policy on a minor child could constitute a conflict of interest, and that a separate procedure — such as appointing a special legal representative — was strictly required."
"I had absolutely no idea. The agent never explained any of this when I signed up," she added. "I just did what I was told, and now they're saying the policy itself is void. I simply cannot accept that."
Attorney Woo Jin-seo of Shinsegae Law said a parent holding parental authority can manage a minor child's assets and act as the child's legal representative, but that authority must be exercised within the bounds of the child's welfare and cannot be used to prioritize the parent's own interests.
He explained that injury insurance policies for minor children are common and can be taken out with only a legal guardian's signature, since they are considered to serve the child's welfare. Death insurance, however, is a different matter. Under Article 731, Paragraph 1 of the Commercial Act, an insurance contract designating another person's death as the insured event requires that person's written consent at the time the contract is concluded — a mandatory provision that cannot be waived.
"Because written consent from the insured is a mandatory requirement under the Commercial Act for death insurance, the contract itself is void," Woo said. He noted, however, that court precedents have found grounds for damages claims where an agent or agency failed to explain that written consent was required, did not disclose that the benefit would be forfeited without it, or neglected to inform the policyholder of the procedure for appointing a special representative for the minor — even when only the legal guardian's signature was present.
Woo said A should carefully review the facts in light of those precedents and consider filing a damages claim depending on the circumstances.
He advised her to first check the contract to see whether the relevant provisions were properly explained, noting that such contracts typically carry separate signature fields for the insured and the legal guardian. She should also verify whether those fields were explained to her, and whether the insurer ever contacted her afterward to request additional documentation — going through each point before deciding how to proceed.
yul@heraldcorp.com
