HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A bill that has been signed into law by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock requires life insurance companies to search for beneficiaries when a policyholder dies, even if no claims have been submitted.
The law was a response to a series of national settlement agreements in which life insurance companies were charged with making little to no effort to find beneficiaries, instead keeping death benefits for years before turning them over to states as unclaimed property.
Senate Bill 34, requested by Insurance Commissioner Monica Lindeen and sponsored by Sen. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, requires life insurance companies to check a Social Security Administration file at least twice a year to find out if any of its policyholders have died. In those cases, the company must determine if any surviving family members are owed money and pay the benefits or turn over the money to the state as unclaimed property.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.