Todd Croft lost his wife and the mother of his four children last month.
Chelsea Steyns passed away after discovering she was diagnosed with a type of brain tumour so rare, the BC Cancer Agency had never before treated it.
She fought the illness until the very end. Her husband Todd is now left to raise their four children; two sets of twins ages 17 months and five years.
Before Chelsea passed away, she learned her million dollar medical and life insurance policy was null and void because there had been a glitch at the bank and the policy wasn’t paid.
Todd’s friend Patrick Curling spoke more today about what happened.
According to the Royal Bank, where Chelsea had her account, there was $12,500 on hold because it had just been deposited, and amounts over $10,000 are held for 24 hours.
When the insurance company, Manulife, tried to take the amount for the policy, $96.85, it came back ‘Non-Sufficient Funds’ as the money was still on hold.
Curling said it appears Manulife only tried once to take the payment.
“It appears they looked at it once, they tried to withdraw the $96 once, and once that happened it got cancelled,” said Curling.
An email from Royal Bank shows a one-time attempt to withdraw the money.
The family was sent two letters by Manulife about the policy, but the letters were not opened and were misplaced.
One notice stated that the termination was going to be cancelled, and the second letter stated that it had been cancelled.
Curling said it was a very difficult time for the family and that is why the letters were missed. Chelsea was going through an at-risk pregnancy and they were in the process of moving homes.
“They would have just assumed, like I would, if you get another piece of paper from Manulife that you constantly get updated about your policy, that it was just another reminder about their policy,” said Curling.
“With all the other things they are dealing with, that probably would be a piece if paper they wouldn’t have opened up.”
RBC issued this statement on Friday:
“We offer our deepest condolences to Mr. Croft and his family. We are doing all that we can to assist him through this very difficult time. Out of respect for the privacy of our clients, we are unable to comment regarding specifics of this situation. Donations to the Croft Family Trust can be made at any RBC branch.”
Manulife could also not speak further on the matter but did issue a statement:
“We certainly understand that this is a very difficult time for Mr. Croft and his family. Please know that when there is is status change to a policy, we make every effort to contact clients to ensure that they are aware of the change.
As we take the responsibility of protecting the privacy of our clients very seriously, we are not able to speak to the media further about this private matter.”
Curling said Todd and Chelsea found out when they went to the lawyer to update their will after she was diagnosed with the brain tumour, and they were told their policy had been cancelled.
Chelsea had been paying the policy since 2009.
“It was devastating for her,” said Todd on Thursday. “She felt like she let the family down, it’s just a weird situation.”
“It was a massive blow.”
Now Todd has four children, and no money left.
“Where are we going to live, when am I going to be able to return back to work?” he said.
“Being a single dad, just like any single parent, there’s those stresses, you worry about your future, and if you’re going to be able to provide for your kids and what they need.”
When Chelsea fell ill, the family and their friends held numerous fundraisers for them and raised a lot of money. But that is all gone.
“I’ve extended everything I have,” said Todd, “and the family’s extended everything they have and the fundraising money was used, completely, for healthcare.”
Curling said this is a lesson to learn from.
“I’m obviously going to open up every piece of mail that comes through my door now,” he said.
He is hoping Manulife can review what happened and perhaps change things around for the family.
“The letters fell between the cracks,” he said.
“I’d say to Manulife, on behalf of the family, please, take another look at this, my understanding of life insurance this is what it’s for, this is why we get it, this is why Chelsea got it, just take one more look at this, I think it’s just one little accounting mistake, it’s 96 dollars, there’s 12,500 dollars in the account, there’s one attempt at it, try it again.”
On Thursday, Todd has a message for people watching.
“We can all get blindsided in life from many different things,” he said. “But my message, and this is why I’m really here, I want to let all you parents, young and old out there, to make sure that you have things in order. Review your insurance policies, make sure your loans are life insured, check your benefit packages, know that you’re protected if anything was to happen to you. Please protect your family.”
“What just happened to us, is exactly what can happen to anybody.”
A trust fund has been set up to help the family.
To make donations to the Croft Family Trust until August 1st, you can do so by going to any Royal Bank, email transfer to croftfamilytrust@gmail.com or by PayPal at www.supportchelsea.com.
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