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Father Impersonates Sick Son to Transfer NT$5.69 Million in Insurance Policies, Wife Wins Lawsuit

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • A wife sued an insurance company and her father-in-law for allegedly impersonating her terminally ill husband to change beneficiaries on five life insurance policies worth approximately NT$5.69 million.
  • The father-in-law admitted in court to impersonating his son during a phone confirmation, exposing a loophole in the insurance company's verification process.
  • A court ruled the beneficiary change invalid due to the insurance company's failure to verify the signature and identity, ordering the company to pay the wife and children the policy amounts.

A Taiwanese woman has won a legal battle against an insurance company and her father-in-law after they allegedly conspired to change her terminally ill husband's life insurance beneficiaries to his mother.

He admitted in court that he impersonated his son to transfer the beneficiaries, and we don't know if it was fraud.

— Father-in-lawDuring the court hearing, the father-in-law revealed his role in the beneficiary change.

The husband, who suffered from severe cognitive impairment due to a brain tumor in late 2018, had purchased five life insurance policies between 2015 and 2016 with his wife and children as beneficiaries. After his death in 2024, his wife discovered that the beneficiaries had been changed to his mother in 2019, and the claims had already been paid out.

She accused the insurance company of negligence, stating her husband could not have personally signed the documents due to his condition. During the trial, the father-in-law shockingly admitted to taking the confirmation call on behalf of his son, revealing a significant flaw in the insurer's verification procedures. The insurance company had claimed to have verified the signature and conducted a phone confirmation.

The insurance company's verification had major flaws.

— JudgeThe judge commented on the insurance company's inadequate procedures after the father-in-law's admission.

The court found that the signature on the application differed from the original policy and that the insurance company failed to exercise due diligence in verifying the identity of the policyholder, especially given the significant impact of changing beneficiaries. The court ruled the beneficiary change invalid, ordering the insurance company to pay the wife and children approximately NT$5.69 million (US$86,507, South African Rand 310,530, Australian dollars 31,820, and NT$1,610,295).

The signature on the application was inconsistent and did not match the original policy.

— JudgeThe court's findings regarding the suspicious signature on the beneficiary change documents.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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