IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…WFSU: “Unclaimed Property Measure Headed For House Floor”
WASHINGTON, DC – (RealEstateRama) — Changes are likely in store for the state’s life insurance industry. Lawmakers are on the verge of approving a measure requiring companies look harder for beneficiaries.
When a family member passes away life insurance policies can help cover things like the funeral and outstanding debts—really anything. But what if the surviving family members don’t know about the policy? Well when that happens the money stays with the insurance company earning interest. Rep. Bill Hager (R-Delray Beach) wants to see insurers getting more proactive about policies. He says just look at annuities.
“As to annuities, these life insurers have routinely searched the social security death database,” he says, “and when they got a hit—a hit meaning one of their annuitants has died—they’ve ceased payments immediately.”
But when it comes to life insurance policies it’s just the opposite. Rather than checking that database to find out when they need to pay beneficiaries, some companies are maintaining a studied ignorance.
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Under Hager’s proposal insurance companies would be required to check their rolls against the Social Security Death Index annually.
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Hager has teamed up with Florida’s insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty and CFO Jeff Atwater to craft the bill. Thursday Atwater was on hand to lobby for the measure before a House panel—and he says there’s a lot of money out there.
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And he put a face to the problem. Atwater’s office helped connect Jackie Bigoney with an insurance policy she didn’t know about.
“We didn’t get a lot a money,” she explains, “we got about a couple thousand dollars. But when you have medical expenses for your mother, and household expenses and our family can’t afford to help support that and when that money came in it was a miracle.”
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“Someone may conclude that $500 million of returned life insurance benefits to the people that paid the premium their beneficiary is small money—it’s not small money,” Atwater says. “One hundred and fifty-one thousand of your constituents but for us doing what we did in reaching settlement agreements would still be in the dark would still not know that their loved one made sacrifices for their benefit to go to college, keep a house and keep a small business open.”
So far, the bill has gotten exactly zero no votes. It has already passed the Senate, and Thursday’s vote was its final stop before the House floor.
Story by Nick Evans
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Contact: Ashley Carr
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