Insure them, assure them, dupe them Aviva Life Insurance Co India Pvt Ltd, has been accused of fraud.

Insure them, assure them, dupe them Aviva Life Insurance Co India Pvt Ltd, has been accused of fraud

Prominent Insurance Company Accused Of Fraud; Complaint Lodged With
IRDA-Appointed Ombudsman

Nischal Arora | TNN

Lucknow: Afraid of investing in stocks? Your investment in ‘safer’instruments too can erode and the company you hand over your life’s savings to insure your life could very well “dupe” you, as has been alleged by a city doctor.
The insurance company, Aviva Life Insurance Co India Pvt Ltd, has been accused by Dr Ram Kapoor of fraud as the company, he alleged, changed his policies, resulting in a major financial setback for him.
The manner in which it was allegedly done was even more shocking. DrKapoor, who has also lodged a complaint with the insurance regulatory and development authority (IRDA)-appointed insurance ombudsman, said he had taken two policies, numbers LLG 1241791 and LLG 1241921, with Aviva through ABN Amro Bank in June 2006. However, around 19 months later without informing beforehand or taking permission from Dr Kapoor, they issued new policies, numbers LLG 1248352 and LLG 1248353. Aviva informed Dr Kapoor vide letter dated January 15, 2008 about the change and when Dr Kapoor inquired about the reason, he was told by Aviva that the terms and conditions were same and that IRDA with a new circular had asked them to change the
policies. He was convinced.
However, he got the shock of his life when after the completion of three years he asked how much partial withdrawal could be made and he was told that the sum assured will be reduced if he did that. Since this condition was allegedly not mentioned in the original policies, Dr Kapoor protested. He was later even told that if he stopped paying the premium after three years a heavy amount would be deducted from the policies.
An angry Dr Kapoor then wrote to Aviva (letter dated July 6, 2009) but Aviva completely denied the existence of the original policies (letter dated July 13, 2009). This despite the fact that in earlier letters dated January 15,2008 they had themselves mentioned that they were issuing new policies “in lieu of” his “old” policies.
What is even bizarre is that one of the receipts he got much earlier in 2007 is against the changed policy number.
Again in letter dated August 11, 2009 Aviva said that the policies were changed on January 14, 2009. This, Aviva said, was done since after processing the “fund-switching request” sent by Dr Kapoor the old policy numbers were “not compatible with the system changes”.
However, Dr Kapoor maintains that his permission was not taken before changing the policies and moreover, Aviva allegedly changed the terms and conditions in the new policies, following which he suffered a major financial setback.
A senior official in the insurance department of ABN Amro Bank, which has a bancassurance tie-up with Aviva, said a client can make a fund-switching request four times in a year and the company cannot change his policies for that. “We have referred the case to Aviva but it seems that Aviva is not responding to the complaint properly,” the official said.
When contacted, Aviva’s spokesperson said that “only the reference numbers of the policies were changed as the systems were upgraded. No change was made to the policy itself. The changes in sum assured post the partial withdrawal on July 7, 2009 have been done in accordance with the policy terms and conditions as communicated to the customer.” Also, the spokesperson maintained that as per the reply letter to the customer (dated August 11, 2009), the change in the policy numbers was done on January 14,2009.”
The spokesperson though did not seem to have an answer to the receipt Dr Kapoor got in 2007 with the changed policy number, even before he was informed about the change, even before the company says the change was made.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/lucknow/Insurance-Co-accused-of-fraud/articleshow/4923720.cms