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.

Citing the “employee injury exception” in an insurance policy, a federal appeals court has overturned the ruling of a lower court that Scottsdale Insurance Co. must pay claims related to the 2005 shooting death of an Easton, Pa., police officer.

American General Life Cos. says its new universal life insurance product, ContinUL, offers “affordable” death benefit coverage with secondary guarantees and flexible features allowing customization.

A trade group of insurance and financial service professionals has voiced its opposition to the growing use of stranger-originated annuity transactions (STATs).