An insured dies by suicide during the first policy year of a Colorado life insurance policy, and the insurer denies the death benefit claim under the policy's suicide provision. Why does C.R.S. § 10-7-109 NOT bar the insurer from raising this defense?

Why A is correct

C.R.S. § 10-7-109 draws a single line: suicide after the first policy year is not a defense against payment of life insurance proceeds, whether the insured was sane or insane and whether the act was voluntary or involuntary. Because this death occurred during the first policy year, the statute's bar had not yet attached, so Colorado law does not stop the insurer from asserting the policy's suicide defense.

Why the other options are wrong

• B) The statute operates directly on the suicide defense itself; no discretionary Colorado Division of Insurance approval is involved in raising it.
• C) Colorado limits the suicide defense rather than abolishing it; after the first policy year, suicide is no longer a defense under C.R.S. § 10-7-109.
• D) Sanity is irrelevant under C.R.S. § 10-7-109, which by its terms applies whether the insured was sane or insane and whether the act was voluntary or involuntary.

Memory hook

Colorado's suicide bar starts ticking only after year one.