What is a life insurance contestability period?

Every life insurance policy issued in the United States contains a contestability clause. It gives the insurer the right to investigate and, in some cases, deny a death claim if the insured dies within a defined window — almost always the first two years the policy is in force.

What the insurer is allowed to do during this period

If you die within the contestability period, the carrier can pull your full medical records, review the answers you gave on your original application, and look for material misstatements. A material misstatement is any incorrect or omitted answer that would have changed whether the policy was issued — or at what premium.

What can void a claim

• Failure to disclose a known medical condition such as diabetes, heart disease, or cancer
• Lying about tobacco or nicotine use
• Failing to disclose a high-risk hobby like skydiving or scuba diving
• Misrepresenting income, occupation, or foreign travel
• Omitting prescription medications that would have affected underwriting

What does not void a claim

Honest mistakes — things you genuinely did not know about your own health — generally do not void a claim. The standard is whether you knowingly misrepresented something material. Forgetting to mention a routine prescription you took five years ago will not usually be a problem. Failing to mention a heart attack will.

What happens after the contestability period ends

Once two years pass, the insurer can no longer contest the claim for misstatements on the application — with one major exception: fraud. If the carrier can prove outright fraud, they can contest a claim at any time, even decades later. But the bar for proving fraud is very high.

Suicide is treated separately

Most policies also contain a separate two-year suicide clause. If the insured dies by suicide within that window, the carrier returns the premiums paid but does not pay the full death benefit. After two years, the death benefit is paid like any other claim.

What you should do

1. When applying for new coverage, be exhaustively honest on the application — even about things that feel small or embarrassing
2. Keep a copy of your application with your policy documents in your EverKeep vault
3. If you discover a mistake on your application after the policy is issued, contact the carrier in writing to correct it
4. If you are claiming on a policy within the two-year window, expect a delay of 30 to 90 days while the carrier completes its review

Contestability is not a trap — it is a check against fraud. The policyholders who get burned by it are almost always the ones who hid something on the application. The ones who told the truth have nothing to worry about.