Life insurance chargebacks: which reversals are fair, and which you should dispute

What a legitimate chargeback looks like

If a policy lapses or is surrendered inside the carrier's chargeback window, the carrier takes back first-year commission. That is normal and usually contractual. A fair reversal names the policy, states the termination date, and matches the commission actually paid on that policy.

The problems start when one of those three pieces does not line up.

Reversals to challenge

Four patterns come up often enough to check for every month:

• Duplicate reversal — the same policy charged back in two different statement periods
• Policy still in force — the client moved to a different draft date or paid late, and the lapse was reversed but the commission was not restored
• Wrong amount — more taken back than was ever paid, or full reversal applied when the contract says pro-rated by month
• Outside the window — a chargeback applied after the window in your schedule has closed

How to ask for it back

Keep it factual. Name the policy number, the statement period the reversal appeared in, the amount reversed, the commission originally paid and the period it was paid in, the policy's current status, and the chargeback terms in your contract. Ask for the reversal to be corrected on the next cycle.

Commission Guardian flags reversals that do not match a prior payment and produces that letter with the figures filled in, so the dispute takes minutes instead of an afternoon in the carrier portal.