April 2026

In 2025, Manulife paid $2.245 billion in life claims and denied less than 1% of the claims made, mainly due to false or inaccurate information. The majority of claims we pay are for policies inforce for 20, 30, and 40 years plus. Most of the deaths occur in ages 80+.

You can share these statistics with your clients when they ask you about claims payment.

Most claims are paid reasonably quickly. There are, however, claims that need investigation due to the contestable period, cause of death, or foreign death.

Some claims take longer to pay due to poor policy administration. For example, beneficiaries are named at issue but are often changed over the lifetime of the policy. It’s a good idea to review beneficiary designations as part of a normal review process as family and business dynamics can change, and the policy owner may intend for the benefits to be paid to someone other than the original beneficiary. It’s important to note that the power of attorney cannot change the beneficiary of a policy, nor sign off on the reinstatement of the policy. 

If the owner and beneficiary of the policy is a corporation, ensure there’s a signing officer to complete the claims requirements. We’ve handled cases where the deceased was the sole signing authority for the corporation, delaying and complicating the claim payment and adding additional steps for the ultimate beneficiary to receive the death benefit.

As clients age, it’s important to ensure they have a plan to manage finances, receive correspondence, and ensure their families or business are aware of the insurance policy. Ensuring policies are in order as clients age, results in a straightforward claim payment for the intended beneficiary.

Sometimes the beneficiary or Power of Attorney (POA) discovers at claim time that the policy has lapsed, which means the claim isn't valid. Clients who experience cognitive decline or diminished mental faculties may struggle to manage premiums, correspondence, and policy updates which can lead to unintended lapses and delayed claims. 

Advisors can reduce this risk by setting up authorized contacts and consent-to-share early, enabling pre-authorized payments and account alerts, and conducting more frequent reviews to confirm beneficiaries, ownership details, and addresses. Document POA and trustee information and ensure they know their limits (for example, a POA cannot change beneficiaries or sign reinstatements). Encourage families to keep policy details in a secure, accessible place and to notify the advisor of any changes in capacity. Proactive planning protects client intentions and supports faster, smoother claims.

Manulife has a process to search for policy holders at advanced ages and find the rightful beneficiary of the policy if the insured is deceased, however sometimes we cannot find the beneficiary(ies). In some provinces, we’re required to pay the benefits to the province. Currently, there’s no central registry for deceased Canadians, and our ability to find people is limited to the footprint they leave through address changes, obituaries, and in some cases social media.

Keeping your client’s policy in good order and ensuring uninterrupted premium payment will help you help the beneficiaries of the policy. Afterall, we’re in the business of claims payment and delivering on the promise we made when the policy was sold.

Read more about our claims process (sign in required).

For more underwriting tips and insight follow Karen Cutler on LinkedIn. Karen is our VP, Head of Underwriting and Claims, Chief Underwriter Individual Insurance.