What if the Money from Your Settlement Agreement Doesn't Come...

Your settlement check should be on its way soon after you've signed the settlement agreement release forms. You should allow at least 3-5 days for the insurance company to receive the documents, a couple more days for the check to be processed and sent out to you and then 3-5 days for it to reach you.



If two weeks have gone by and you haven’t gotten your settlement agreement money, then you should contact the insurance company.

It's almost never the adjuster's job to sign and send out the checks, but for now they're your only contact at the insurance company. Call them and ask if they can look into the delay on your settlement agreement check.

Be polite when dealing with them because, as far as they're concerned, you're no longer their problem. You're now in the hands of another department, so their only real motivation for helping you is to keep you from calling them again!

Basically, all you need is either a confirmation that the check is on its way, or contact information for whoever is now handling your settlement agreement.

If the contact with the adjuster doesn’t seem to get you anywhere and your check still hasn't come, then get in touch with the person in charge of the claims department. By the time you'd be doing this more than four weeks would have passed without you receiving your settlement check.

The person in the claims department will want your claim number. It's a good idea to give them the name of the adjuster you dealt with as well. Also, tell them the amount of your settlement agreement. No matter what their response is, you should write a letter confirming the conversation and keep a copy for yourself.

Whatever you do, don't take the stance that it's okay for you to be patient for the time being. While you may want to give the insurer the benefit of the doubt (either they're busy, you aren’t in too much of a hurry, or you trust the wheels are in motion), not checking on the status of your payment can make your life harder later on.

So as long as the delay is significant, start making phone calls. If the settlement agreement check still hasn't arrived after a month has passed, you can contact your state insurance department.

The state department will only help you if it's been more than a month since the check should have arrived. They will also not intervene unless you can show that you have made several unsuccessful attempts to get the check on your own. That’s why those previous phone calls and letters are important. If you didn’t make them before, then you'd have to start dealing with it now. And from there things might go on another month before the state insurance department can help you.

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