When Life Insurance Is Suddenly Canceled

Earlier this year, an elderly man went to the hospital for stomach pains. The doctors advised him that he had gallstones. Days after the emergency room visit, the man and his wife purchased some life insurance. Only later did they learn that the "gallstones" were cancer. Now the insurer is refusing to pay.

"He died pretty quickly," says Michael Young, a Sherman, Texas, attorney representing the widow, who declined to provide more information about them or their case because it may go to litigation. "Insurance companies have gotten creative."