Old Mutual - playing with peoples lives

My husband passed away suddenly in Sept 2021 and I was left a single parent over night to my 16 year old son. My Insurance Broker lodged a claim on the RA my husband had with Old Mutual on my behalf. After lodging the claim, Old Mutual took their time in requesting the necessary information they required to process the claim. The claim was then only finally registered in March 2022. Since then I have had no correspondence from Old Mutual relating to the claim. I have emailed and contacted their service providers on numerous occasions to enquire the progress of the claim only to be told that the Trustees can take up to 12 months to finalise the claim. Just because they can take up to 12 months does not mean they have to. I had a similar claim, Pension SARAF, with Allan Gray for way more than the Old Mutual claim and they processed it within 3 months. I think it is disgusting that Old Mutual in a circumstance where a spouse has passed on and a minor is being cared for by a single parent will take the most time available to them to process the claim. I have had to deal with becoming a single parent overnight and struggling financially to support myself and my son and Old Mutual just say, nothing can be done, the Trustees have up until 12 months to process. I will never invest or advocate any Old Mutual product. My financial adviser and another broker I deal with have said that Old Mutual is the only big financial institution that they struggle to deal with. Taking up to a month to respond to queries.