What happens to life insurance proceeds if the beneficiary has no idea he is on the policy? This is not a philosophical question or open to an “if a tree falls in the forest” debate. The law anticipates that this will happen, and state agencies like the Florida Department of Financial Services and the Office of Insurance Regulation do what they can to enforce the laws.
We have talked about the problem of unclaimed life insurance benefits before. In October 2012, for example, we posted about the state of Florida’s settlement with Nationwide Financial Services Inc. regarding its process for identifying insureds and notifying beneficiaries. Nationwide was the fourth life insurer to settle with the state, and consumer advocates and other states’ regulators praised Florida’s enforcement efforts.
Every year, generally around tax time, people go through their paper files to clean out the old stuff and put in the new. Out goes the investment account summary from 2004 — the rule is seven years, right? Keep important papers and tax records for seven years, then shred them?
Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart believes the country should catch up with his home state when it comes to building codes. The congressman is the chief House sponsor of HR 1878, the Safe Building Code Incentive Act of 2013. The bill was also introduced in 2007, 2009 and 2011. Proponents hope that the fourth time is the charm.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott apparently had no reaction to the Citizens reform bill that landed on his desk last week. His office said only that he was “reviewing the proposal.” There was no hint that he was either disappointed or relieved that the rating methodology changes did not make it into the final bill. Legislators and homeowners alike will just have to wait to see what happens.
The Florida Legislature has sent a less ambitious insurance bill to Gov. Rick Scott than some lawmakers had hoped. The bill does not offer a complete overhaul of Citizens Property Insurance Corp.; rather, it represents a more incremental approach to reform that seemed to go over better with legislators concerned, in particular, about raising rates.
We are continuing our series about an unusual bad faith insurance case. As we have said, the case does not directly involve Florida residents or insurance policies that were purchased here. We thought the case was worth some time because it is an unusual insurance coverage dispute that involves high-profile individuals and, of course, a whiff of scandal.
This is the last post in our series about a breach of faith insurance claim brought by actor Keith Carradine’s ex-wife, Sandra Will Carradine, against her insurance company. She claims that she contacted her insurance company in 2006 when her ex-husband sued her. The insurer neither accepted nor rejected her claim until 2011, when it finally agreed to provide a defense. She is now suing the insurance company for the money she spent on her own defense during those five years.
According to reports, Florida’s health care workers are having trouble affording health insurance. The whole thing is somewhat ironic, as these people are within the industry.
It isn’t often that you run across a story about insurance that is even close to being tabloid fodder. We feel it incumbent on us to seize on those rare occasions, then, even if the cases are not from Florida. The insurance carrier in the story, State Farm (technically, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company), certainly does business in Florida, but the people involved do not live here, and the events leading up to the claim did not happen here.
