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Applying for long term disability insurance benefits through Sun Life can seem like an uphill battle, especially when it comes time to ask your busy doctor to fill out a long, complicated claim form. What should claimants do if their doctor won’t support their disability by filling out an attending physician statement or contacting Sun Life? When should this conversation between you and your doctor even happen? Learn more about applying for Sun Life long term disability benefits and what claimants can expect from the process.
Continue Reading What Disability Insurance Claimants Should Know About Applying for Sun Life Disability Benefits

Canadian-based Sun Life provides group long term disability insurance policies throughout the United States, and like many disability insurance carriers, its disability insurance claimants tend to get their fair share of insurance benefit denial letters. But unlike some of the largest disability insurance carriers, Sun Life provides very thorough denial letters when it rejects a disability claim. Often weighing in at eight or nine pages to the more typical three or four, these letters can provide disability insurance claimants with a valuable roadmap to what they’ll need to prove to win a disability insurance lawsuit. Learn more about what happens after a Sun Life Disability insurance claimant has exhausted their disability insurance administrative appeals and is ready to sue this insurance carrier for disability benefits.…

Continue Reading Sun Life Disability Insurance Income Lawsuit & Benefit Denial Tips

In Vicki Young v. Sun Life and Health Insurance Company, plaintiff Young, a mortgage broker, was initially granted disability benefits in September 2010 based on her diagnosis of fibromyalgia. The initial two years of her disability were based on her inability to perform the essentially duties of her own occupation.

After two years, Sun Life continued her long term disability (LTD) benefits on the grounds that she did not have the ability to perform the job duties of any occupation for which she was qualified. Suddenly, in 2015, Sun Life terminated her benefits, stating she was no longer disabled under the “any occupation” standard. Young’s administrative appeal was denied and she filed this ERISA lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
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Continue Reading Court Reinstates Disability Benefits Erroneously Terminated by Sun Life

In Micha v. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada and Group Disability Benefits Plan (Sun Life v. Group Disability), plaintiff John Paul Micha, M.D., was covered by a disability benefit policy through Sun Life which had been purchased by Group Disability, an employee welfare plan maintained to provide disability benefits to the employees of the medical group of which Micha was a part.
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Continue Reading Court Orders Sun Life Assurance Company to Pay Appellate Attorney’s Fees

In Schmitz v. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (Sun Life), the claimant, Jeff Schmitz, was fired by Banner Engineering in July 2008 on the grounds his work performance was poor. In October 2011, Schmitz was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He then filed for disability benefits under the policy which covered him during his employment with Banner. He claimed symptoms caused by his multiple sclerosis were what caused his poor performance resulting in him being terminated. Therefore, he argued, he was disabled at the time he was fired.
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Continue Reading Court Affirms Sun Life’s Disability Benefit Denial

In an unpublished opinion issued on July 7, 2014 from the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, a Federal Court ruled somewhat surprisingly and approved Sun Life’s decision to “offset” VA Benefits from a disabled Veteran’s monthly disability benefits. While this case is not “binding precedent,” it can serve as a warning for those that are receiving VA Benefits, or any other income benefits, that are not listed in their Long Term Disability (LTD) ERISA Policy.
Continue Reading Federal Appeals Court Rules that Sun Life Can Offset VA Benefits Even Though Such Benefits Are Not Listed in the Policy

Mr. R had worked as a shop floor supervisor before his chronic back pain, which resulted from a slip and fall that herniated several disks in his back, and resulted in three failed back surgeries, caused him to file for long-term disability under his Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada group long-term disability insurance policy. Like most group long-term disability policies, Mr. R’s Sun Life policy paid disability benefits for the first 24 months if he was disabled from his own occupation as a shop floor supervisor.…

Continue Reading Federal Court Finds Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada’s $8000 Worth of Surveillance on Disabled Shop Floor Supervisor Unreasonable