Lawsuits filed by the Office of Controller in California, against several of the largest life insurers in the US, have resulted in the payout of $2.4 billion of life insurance claims.
Large life insurers including Met Life, Prudential, John Hancock, AIG, New York Life, Pacific Life, and several others, have been sued or investigated over withholding life insurance claims.
Now, in what may be a second offense to these beneficiaries — who may have never received their rightful claim money had it not been for legal action taken by California State Controller John Chaing — many of the claims are being miscalculated.
Death Master File
The general complaint has been that these insurers have access to the Death Master File — a database with which entry of a social security number can match an insured against a list of deceased persons — but they have not used the database for this purpose and have wrongly withheld life insurance claim benefits. The direct result of several legal actions has been the payment of $2.4 billion of death claims.
Even though claims from old and forgotten policies are being paid, the insurers are not giving any information about the actual policies or how the claim benefits are being determined.
The calculation of a life insurance claim payment can include several components. Among them; the policy face amount, accumulated interest (from the date of death), riders, and demutualization of the insurer. Without a detailed accounting of the claim payment, most people have no way of knowing if they are receiving the correct amount of money.
We have done life insurance claim reviews for many of our clients and have found miscalculated benefits. If you would like a free review of your life insurance claim payment, contact us today.
Life insurance claims dispute
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