The Van Delden family has had funeral insurance for many years. Father Erik since his birth in 1946, mother Els since 1979 and their 2 children since the 1990s. All 4 are at Yarden. Last year Erik decided to check the status of funeral insurance.
Because the premiums had long been paid off, Erik had not looked at them for years. He entered the policy numbers on Yarden’s website. But that yielded no results. He then called customer service. It turned out that Erik and Els’ policies had been canceled in 2003 because they had not paid a small amount of administration costs at the time. At that time, the postal address of Erik and Els was not known to the insurer. That is why they had never received reminders. There was nothing more to say, the files had been destroyed long ago. So there was no point in complaining any further. But hey, there was also good news: there was nothing wrong with the children’s policies.
Evidence available
Erik and Els were now too old to take out funeral insurance again. Erik contacted the MAX Ombudsman: the last straw. When something is wrong with long-term insurance, evidence is often a problem. Because as a customer you not only have to prove that you have taken out a policy, you also have to prove that all premiums have been paid. Erik was able to do that: he had kept the letters stating that his and Els’ funeral policies had become premium-free, only an annual amount of administration costs remained. Erik had more trump cards: they had lived at the same address for more than 30 years. Moreover, after 2003 they still received mail about their children’s insurance policies. The fact that they were at ‘address unknown’ at Yarden could therefore not be the couple’s fault. Everything indicated that it was not Erik and Els, but Yarden who had blundered.
Control internal procedures
We confronted Yarden with this compelling evidence. Something Erik had previously done himself. Now the insurer did change tack. Erik and Els’ funeral policies have now been restored. They can now live with peace of mind, hopefully for many years to come. Yarden cannot answer our question whether this is a known problem. The insurer will, however, review the internal procedures following this case.
Check your Yarden funeral insurance
We advise everyone who has insurance with Yarden to check whether it is still current. And if you are considering just keeping the funeral policies and finally throwing away all the old administration surrounding them: don’t do it! Erik and Els owe the recovery of their policies to their passion for saving money.
Rogier de Haan collaborated with Jeanine Janssen in 2013 MAX Ombudsman set up. MAX Ombudsman makes common complaints and organized injustice visible. Rogier de Haan’s columns are about this. read here already his columns.
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