As expected, 22 state insurance departments have joined a settlement agreement with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) finally reaching the required threshold of participating jurisdictions the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) announced on May 15.
The NAIC Investigations of Life and Annuity Claims Settlement Practices Task Force, which was formed in 2011, had examined MetLife's use of the Social Security Administration's Death Master List that is utilized to identify deceased policy holders.
The examination found a disproportional use of the Death Master List. The findings allege that MetLife, and other insurers were using the list to aggressively determine when annuitants had died in order to cease making payments but gave a lackadaisical effort to determine when life insurance policyholders had died and needed to have benefits paid to beneficiaries.
