Claim on several accident policies

Dear Mr Tan

If I have several personal accident policy, and something happens to me, can my family make a claim on all the policies?

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My reply:

If you are insured under several personal accident or life insurance policies, you can make a claim on all of them. There is no limit to the total amount that can be claimed under these policies that cover a human life.

The situation is different for insurance policies that are intended to reimburse you for the actual loss, such as a fire insurance policy or a medical expense policy. Under these policies, you will only be paid for the amount that you have incurred.

For example, if your house is burned down by a fire, and the cost of rebuilding the house is $500,000, you can claim up to this amount only, even though you may have insured for a much larger sum.

Similarly, if you have several medical expense policy, you can only claim for the amount of your medical bills, even though the insured sum under all the policies may be higher.

The principle is: you cannot make any gain under a "reimbursement" policy.