'GMA' Helps 7-Eleven Employee's Family Get Life Insurance After 9-Month Battle

Jan. 7, 2009 — -- Buying life insurance through an employer seems easy enough. About one-third of Americans get their life insurance that way or through a group policy. But what if tragedy strikes and grieving families can't get the benefits their loved ones paid for?

Sarwara Faruque's family found out how that could happen when they were forced to mount a nine-month fight to claim the life insurance money she had put away for her children in the event of her death.

Faruque worked for 7-Eleven for more than seven years, saving every penny possible for her children's college funds. To prepare for the worst, she also dropped regular payments into a life insurance policy offered by 7-Eleven.

In the spring of 2007, Faruque was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and, after a nine-month battle, she was gone.

"The nurse is like, 'Your mom's not breathing.' And that's when we knew that she passed away," Faruque's daughter Tanija Faruque told "Good Morning America."

For the family, a second blow came when they tried to collect their mother's $45,500 life insurance policy. The company that handled the policy, Excellerate HRO, denied their claim. The company said that Faruque's policy was cancelled because she did not pay the premiums while out on sick leave.

But Excellerate HRO was wrong. There was a clause in Faruque's policy explaining that if she could not work because of a medical condition, she did not have to pay her premiums any longer and would still remained covered.

For nine months, the family tried to get help from 7-Eleven, without success.

"We didn't get any answers," said Tanija Faruque. "We were going back and forth. And they knew, they knew that my mother passed away. And they knew it was a rough time for us."

The Faruques eventually hired a lawyer.

"7-Eleven abandoned the Faruque family, and they disregarded the wishes of their employee," said Alicia Paulino Grisham, the Faruques' lawyer. "The reason that she was paying for coverage was because she wanted to protect them and they didn't care."