underwriting guidelines are the rules and requirements that a life insurance company provides for its agents and underwriters to use when deciding whether to write a policy for a prospective insured and for how much. The underwriting process itself is the process of deciding whether to write a policy for a prospective insured and for what terms and how much. Post-claim underwriting is the inappropriate process of deciding – after the death of the policyholder – whether to write a policy for a prospective insured and for what terms and how much. Post-claim underwriting is inappropriate and unfair because it is simply is a way for the life insurance companies to find a way (by investigation) not to pay out the life insurance claim when it should have done that investigation prior to issuing the policy.