Transamerica reaches multistate life claim settlement

October 04, 2013 at 08:36 AM
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Florida reached a life claim settlement agreement with Transamerica Life Insurance Company (Transamerica) and its affiliates.

All of the settlements concentrate on the insurers' asymmetrical use of the U.S. Social Security Death Master File (DMF) and the practice of using it to stop paying a deceased person's annuity, but not using it to search for beneficiaries of a life insurance policy to determine if benefits were due. As part of the settlement agreements, insurers are now required to use it in locating beneficiaries and must promptly remit payment to the unclaimed property division of each state for beneficiaries that cannot be located.

As a result of this process, regulators predict the overall anticipated payouts will eventually reach up to $3 billion to beneficiaries directly and through the states. The estimated amount of property to be reported nationally for the Transamerica settlement is $137 million. The Transamerica settlement represents the eighth life claim settlement agreement for Florida.

In other news:

Creative Marketing International Corporation's management announced that CM2 Holding Inc., a Kansas holding company, completed the purchase of the stock of Creative Marketing International Corporation from Aviva USA.

The transaction was unanimously approved by both Aviva USA and Athene Holding Ltd., which acquired the former in a stock transaction shortly following.

The new majority owners of CM2 are in current management: Mike Tripses, president, and Will Moneymaker COO/CFO. One additional minority owner, Mark Heitz, was formerly president of Sales & Distribution for Aviva USA.

The transaction provides Creative's management ownership of one of the industry's leading insurance and financial wholesalers. As an independent and privately owned corporation, Creative Marketing will be well equipped to take advantage of the changing competitive dynamics in the market and capitalize on the continuing evolution of consumer demand for retirement solutions through Annuities, Life Insurance and Securities.

Creative Marketing's new ownership will focus on solidifying the company's status as the industry's leading IMO and executing an aggressive growth strategy.

In approved states, MetLife is introducing the Enhanced Care Benefit as a rider available on its entire whole life portfolio, for policies first sold after Sept. 3, 2013.

Consumers will now have the option to use their life insurance to not only help protect against the consequences of an untimely death, but also, by accelerating a portion of the death benefit in the event of the insured's prolonged illness against the consequences of the costs associated with ongoing care necessitated by such an illness.

The Enhanced Care Benefit provides policyowners the ability to accelerate, generally on an income tax free basis subject to certain limits, up to 90 percent of a policy's death benefit over the life of the policy which can be used to help pay for ongoing care if an insured develops a prolonged illness. The rider can be included on all MetLife Promise Whole Lifepolicies at no additional premium charge. There will be a processing fee of $150 and the amount of money accessed will be discounted by a certain percentage, but consumers will not have to pay anything out-of-pocket to access the Enhanced Care Benefit.

The Round Table of New York announced that Fred Sievert, FSA, MAAA, the retired president of New York Life Insurance Company, is the recipient of its 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sievert will be honored at the Round Table of New York's 95th Anniversary Black Tie Dinner set for Monday, Dec. 2, 2013 at the Union League Club.

The Round Table of New York's annual Lifetime Achievement Award goes to an individual who has made significant contributions to the insurance and financial services industry. The award recognizes individuals for their accomplishments in the areas of ethics, education and industry leadership.

Sievert began his career with New York Life as senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Individual Operations and, after a long series of promotions and increased responsibilities, was elected president of the company in 2002. 

Under Sievert's leadership, New York Life achieved its first number one market share ranking in the sale of life insurance in the United States and maintained that distinction for seven years. While serving as president, the company also achieved a number one market share ranking in the sale of immediate annuities and in the direct sale of life insurance through the AARP organization. During that same period the company regained its triple-A ratings from all four of the top insurance company rating agencies and significantly expanded its international presence. 

Sievert took his B.A. from Amherst College and M.A. from Wayne State University.  Following his retirement from New York Life in 2007, he attended Yale Divinity School, earning a Master's of Arts in Religion in 2011.

John Boneparth joined Conning Holdings Corp.'s board of directors as an independent director.

Boneparth is currently managing partner at Corinthian Cove Consulting and previously served as managing director and head of Global Institutional Management for Putnam Investments, where he presided over $160 billion in sales over a 14-year period.

Boneparth's prior experience includes senior managing director and Head of Global Institutional Management for Putnam Investments in Boston. Additionally, he served as chairman of the board of PanAgora Asset Management and was a board member of Nissay Asset Management in Japan, Ampega Investment in Germany, and Sceptre Investment Counsel in Canada. He has a B.S in economics from the Wharton School and an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania.

SBLI of Massachusetts launched six whole life products and eight riders.

The products — continuous pay, single premium, 10-, 15-, and 20-payment, and paid-up at age 65—feature robust guaranteed cash values as well as high current cash values in the first 15 years of coverage. Each product will participate in SBLI's dividends, and the company's best rate class is available for policies with face values as low as $100,000. Those qualifying for SBLI's standard rate class can get policies with face amounts as low as $25,000.

An accelerated death benefit rider is included at no premium charge with every SBLI whole life product. Other riders can be purchased, including waiver of premium, children's level term, single-pay paid–up additions, accidental death benefit, flex-pay paid-up additions, guaranteed level term, and guaranteed purchase option.

Hammond Hanlon Camp LLC (H2C), an advisory and investment banking firm focused on the healthcare sector, added James M. Molloy as principal in the New York office, M. Craig Kornett as managing director in the New York office and Benjamin M. Klemz as director in the Chicago office.  Each of the three senior executives joins H2C from Barclays Capital. 

The three will provide advice and execution related to strategy, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and capital markets to the firm's expanding client roster of health care service organizations, ancillary service providers and related organizations.

For 25 years, Molloy has assisted many of the nation's leading health care organizations in the realization of their strategic vision. Prior to joining H2C, Molloy was co-head of the health care group at Barclays Capital and also at Lehman Brothers, where he built the team starting in 2006. He has held senior positions at consulting firms, rating agencies and investment banks, with significant experience in strategic advisory, capital structure and strategic planning. He has executed billions of dollars of capital markets transactions on behalf of clients, including recent transactions for Baylor College of Medicine, HealthFirst, Ochsner Health System, OhioHealth, Temple University Health System, and Tufts Medical Center. Molloy received his B.S. in engineering from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

Kornett's health care career spans 25 years as an investment banker, strategic advisor, rating agency group head, management consultant and strategic planning director at two healthcare systems.  As an investment banker for the past decade at Barclays Capital, Lehman Brothers and UBS, Kornett worked on several billion-dollar financings for large national and regional health systems, as well as for single-site, community hospitals. Prior to investment banking, he spent seven years as a senior credit analyst at Fitch Ratings, with the last three as sector head in charge of hospital ratings where he managed a portfolio of more than 200 systems and hospital credit ratings. Kornett has also worked as a strategic planning director for North Shore Health System in New York and The Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and five years as a management consultant at Coopers & Lybrand and Ernst & Young. He received his B.A. from Lynchburg College of Virginia and his MBA in finance from Fordham University.   

Klemz was formerly a director in the health care group at Barclays Capital, where he focused on large healthcare systems.  At Barclays, his expertise was debt and derivative transactions, along with M&A and strategic advisory.  Earlier in his career, Klemz held positions of increasing responsibility related to health care transactions at UBS Investment Bank in Chicago and Ziegler Capital Markets Group.  He began his career at Bank One Corporation in Milwaukee. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater and earned his MBA from the University of Chicago.

The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company sponsored a Bike Build for Charity event to benefit pre-school students from the Morristown Neighborhood House in July at the Hamilton Park Conference Center in Florham Park, N.J.

Field leaders from Penn Mutual's Career Agency System worked in teams to successfully build and donate seven bikes for a group of children from the Morristown Neighborhood House, an organization working to help new immigrants and families facing economic challenges become self-sufficient.

Formed in 1898, the Morristown Neighborhood House now services on average more than 1,500 children and adults each day, and the bike build event was Penn Mutual's first volunteering experience with the organization.

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