Call Kurtis: I Can't Bury My Brother

Funerals are expensive. And without the money from this policy, she hasn't been able to bury her brother.

"It hurts, it hurts a lot.  He didn't get what he wanted," says Sheila Dobson, Sacramento resident.

Sheila's brother, Glenn, died over the summer.

"This is the urn that I had the ashes put into," says Sheila.

She had to cremate him because she didn't have enough money for a memorial service or burial. The money she depended on... a life insurance policy with Globe Life and Accident Insurance Company, she set up five years ago. The company told Sheila the policy was cancelled in April.

"It was kind of a shock to me.  All of a sudden, you say the policy lapsed," says Sheila.

Sheila says even though she paid the company every month, they told her the monthly premium increased by $9 and says they notified her at an address on 24th street.

The only problem... Sheila doesn't live on 24th street and doesn't know anyone who ever has.  Still, Globe Life wouldn't pay her claim.

"It just kind of made me upset so the first thing I thought of was call Kurtis because he's been doing pretty good at solving problems," says Sheila.

Sheila gave us a call and volunteer Maureen took her case. She advised Sheila to get copies of all her money orders, which Globe Life cashed.

"I contacted the insurance company and I faxed at least twice all the information and talked to the people," says Maureen.

We asked Globe Life what went wrong? They had no explanation for us and told us "no comment." After Maureen worked on the case for almost four months, Sheila finally got her check for the full amount of the policy, plus interest.

She plans to use part of it to bury Glenn's ashes in their hometown of St. Louis.

"Thank you very much for helping me and I couldn't have done it without her," says Sheila.

"I was very tickled for her, I know she was quite happy," says Maureen.

Sheila says this company didn't send her monthly statements.    If I paid a company money, but didn't get a statement as proof, I'd call them up and ask why.

As for how they got an address on 24th street, Sheila said the company claimed, the mailman said that's where she lived.