On The Disclosure Obligation Of Policyholder

Policyholder disclosure obligation is a legal obligation, a pre-contract obligation and an unreal obligation. Policyholder disclosure obligation in the insurance law plays an important role, the reasonable construction of disclosure obligation system directly relates to the healthy development of the insurance industry.The content of disclosure obligation is material fact that policyholders know or should know. The matters that insurers know or should know should be exempted from the disclosure obligation of policyholders. Our country "insurance law" awarded the material fact to the actual insure. The actual insure is awarded as the judge of important fact in "insurance law" of our country. In order to better balance the interests of both sides of insurance contract, we should make reference to British insurance law and introduce a "prudent insurer" concept.The period to fulfill disclosure obligation shall be defined as"before insurers promised". In addition, in the life insurance when contract is effective again and when the insurance contract continues or insurance contract concluded as new content changes, policyholders also should perform the obligations. There are two ways of disclosure obligation: active disclosure mode and inquiry disclosure mode. Our country adopt inquiry disclosure mode. In the legislative technology the performance method shall be limited the paper inquire.As for the legal consequences of obligations of policyholders, in order to correctly apply the relevant laws, we should fully consider the three elements: the subjective aspects, the objective aspects,the causal relationship relating to insurance accidents. If the matter that policyholders do not accurately disclosure is what the insurers refuse to cover, regardless of whether the accident has causal relationship with insurance accidents, the insurers have the right to terminate the contract of insurance. If the matter that policyholders do not accurately disclosure will cause the insurers to increase fees and charges, the insurers can't terminate the contract to relieve compensation obligation in the absence of causal relationship after the accident, but they can increase premiums in order to comply with "the balance of the price "principle. If policyholders disobey disclosure obligation, the insurers may terminate the insurance contract, but sometimes because of the specific reasons such as waiver, estoppels and incontestable clause, the insurers can't terminate the insurance contract. These systems are introduced in new "Insurance Law" of our country, but incontestable clauses need to be improved. When policyholder did not truthfully disclosure obligations but insurant died in incontestable clauses period, the insurers can terminate the insurance contract.Policyholder disclosure obligation is the most controversial and difficult rule to understand in theory and the judicial practice. In February 2009, "Insurance Law" in our country was revised and there were some changes for the disclosure obligation, increasing the protection of interest of policyholders. At present, the insurance system is improving and there's a lot of originality in many clauses, but there are still some defects in the disclosure content, the performing period, the performing manners, incontestable clause. In the future, the insurance practice will cause many disputes, and it needs further improvement.