Life Insurers Start Fighting Back

Philadelphia partners Jason Gosselin, Stephen Serfass and Timothy O’Driscoll wrote an article for Law360 titled, “Life Insurers Start Fighting Back.”

They discuss how, more than three years ago, regulators began to scrutinize life insurers for so-called “asymmetric” use of the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File (DMF). Most of this scrutiny has come in the form of unclaimed property audits and market conduct examinations, where life insurers do not have the benefit of a neutral arbiter deciding questions of fact and law.

While many insurers acquiesced to regulators’ demands and began implementing standard protocols for searching the DMF, in the past year, others have begun to vigorously defend against regulators’ claims in court and have even asserted affirmative claims challenging the regulators’ position.

Jason, Stephen and Timothy discuss the industry’s comeback in this dispute as well as important considerations for the future.

“Many life insurers are naturally averse to litigation, particularly when it involves their regulator,” they say. “The recent trend, however, suggests that some insurers may believe the risk of inaction could be far worse for the industry in the long run.”

To read the entire article, click here.