New York State Financial Services Superintendent Adrienne Harris is seeking state court approval to put Columbian Mutual Life Insurance Co. in rehabilitation.
The Vestal, New York-based life insurer was founded in 1882, still has about 700,000 life insurance policies and annuity contracts in force, and, in December 2022, estimated that it had received life insurance claims for about 0.5% of the 1 million Americans who had died from COVID-19.
New York needs to take control over Columbian partly because inaccurate mortality assumptions had hurt its performance, and partly of the end of efforts by another company, Constellation, to acquire it and contribute capital, according to a petition Harris filed in a state court in Broome County, New York.
Representatives for Columbian could not immediately be reached for comment.
What it means: Clients who have life insurance or annuities from Columbian need to pay close attention to news from the company.
At this point, there are no changes to Columbian's life insurance policies or annuity contracts.
Columbian: The company ended 2023 with about $129 million in annual revenue, $1.4 billion in admitted assets, $4.1 billion of whole life insurance in force and $427 million of term life insurance in force.
