보험설계사의 고지방해와 보험자의 책임

An insurance contract is a contract of utmost good faith, so that the insured must disclose the material facts to the insurer which he knows about the risk before the contract is made. As the purpose of disclosure of material facts is th enable the insurer to decide whether to make the contract of insurance and, if so, on what terms. Article 651 of the Korean commercial Act stipulates the disclosure duty of insured. According to this clause, breach of the duty is defined that at the time of making an insurance contract, a policyholder(or insured), due to fraud or gross negligence, failed to disclose or misrepresented material facts. As the effects of breach of duty, the insurer may terminate the contract within one month after it becomes aware of the non-disclosure of misrepresentation within three years after the contract was made. This clause does not define direct the duty of disclosure, but it is to be interpreted to mean that a insured is under a duty of disclosure about material facts, and that he must pay the penalty in case of violations. Recently are many conflicts between insurer and policyholder arising from this volunteer duty of disclosure system. In the practice of life insurance in Korea is used the questionnaire in a proposal form, but it does not mean yet the ‘Making the Duty of Disclosure Passive’ which means that the conversion from the duty of voluntary disclosure to the duty to answer questions. Furthermore, there are many insurance contracts which are made through the intermediation of insurance salesmen who belong to the particular insurance company or agent. Although they have not the right to receive the notification about material facts which the policyholder discloses, the policyholder believes that he has performed his duty fully. With this regard, this study researched the statues of insurance salesmen and the effects of breach of disclosure caused their obstruction.