Sun Life

I've been in a battle with SunLife for 5 years

Reviewed by Kim on February 9th 2013   Verified Policyholder
I have been in a battle with Sunlife and Manulife for 5 years now. When I was working, Sunlife provided my insurance and I had to be off work for 2 years on Long Term. I returned to work mainly because I was told I’d be denied for permanent disability and being a single mom was terrified of what would happen to my family. Well, I only lasted one year and became ill again with the same disease. Too ill to work anymore in any occupation. While I was on LTD my employer switched insurance carriers to Manulife. So when I got ill again I was told to file a claim with Manulife. I did that and was denied the first time due to lack of medical evidence. I appealed and Manulife told me that it was a reoccurrence of my old illness and I had to file with Sunlife. I called Sunlife and they deny my claim because the six month reoccurrence clause was over and Manulife was now responsible for my claim. I was only able to return to work barely for 1 year and 1 month. Now neither companies will accept my claim. I have been approved for Canada disability pension and my Omer’s disability pension. Still waiting to get to court to see which insurance company really is responsible for my claim. In the meantime I lost everything I had and have over 50,000 in debt to pay back to people who have been supporting me through this. It’s shocking to me that when a company switches insurance carriers the person currently on LTD is never notified. Neither company has any obligation to inform the person on disability benefits.
Reply
Sent on February 9th 2013 by Attorney Gregory Dell

Kim, Your employer should have advised you of the change of disability carriers. You also need to make sure that when your employer switched disability providers that you did not have a pre-existing condition issue. This is a common problem that we see when companies change from one disability company to another. One of these companies must accept your claim and it sounds like it would be Manulife.