New York has instituted new regulations requiring all life insurers marketing in the state to regularly search a government database of recent deaths, seeking deceased policyholders so beneficiaries who have not made claims can be paid.

A group of six states reached a $40 million “landmark” settlement today (April 23) with nine MetLife insurance companies that might return about $600 million to consumers nationwide.

A New York investigation into how insurance companies track life insurance policyholders and their beneficiaries resulted in more than 32,000 payments totaling $262.2 million, more than four times its tally in December.

A New York investigation into life insurers failing to match life insurance policies against master files of deaths has resulted in more than $52.6 million in payments to 7,934 beneficiaries.

Seven Republican congress members introduced a bill (H.R. 3127) that would prohibit the payment of death gratuities to the surviving heirs of deceased members of Congress.

The New York State Insurance Department is requiring all life insurance companies operating in the state to report any death benefits that have gone unpaid because the insurers did not use the official government death list.

California’s insurance commissioner and state controller are investigating how MetLife handles its payment of death benefits, exploring practices they say “are not isolated, but are systemic in the insurance industry.”

Congress definitely should not tax the $57.5 trillion in death benefits paid out from life insurance each year, according to the latest IFAwebnews.com poll.

A Florida man must pay $1.5 million to two life insurance companies after being convicted of a conspiracy charge connected to his faked death on a family trip to Malaysia in October 2003.

Lincoln Financial Group recently launched Lincoln VULONE (2010), a hybrid product combining the no-lapse benefits of a universal life policy with the growth potential and protection of a variable policy with guarantees, the company said.