MassMutual Subject Of Multistate Targeted Market Conduct Exam

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Aug. 20 -- The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation issued the following news release:

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty announced today the release of the Report (http://www.floir.com/siteDocuments/LH-Exams/MassMutualFinancialGroupExam08162013.pdf) of the Multistate Targeted Market Conduct Examination of MassMutual Financial Group (MassMutual).

The examination of MassMutual began in December 2012 and was managed by New Hampshire as part of the ongoing efforts being guided and coordinated by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Life/Annuities Claim Settlement Practices Task Force, which is chaired by Commissioner McCarty.

The Task Force is focused on investigating how life and annuity insurers have utilized the Social Security Death Master File (DMF) to identify deceased life insurance policyholders and annuitants and the efforts these insurers have undertaken to either pay beneficiaries or report and remit unclaimed property to the appropriate agencies.

The examination of MassMutual, one of the largest insurers in the United States, found that it used information from the DMF to both make payments to beneficiaries of life insurance policies as well as to stop annuity payments. As a result of this positive examination report outcome, a multistate regulatory settlement agreement was deemed unnecessary.

"The conclusion of this examination shows that despite industry practices to the contrary, MassMutual acted in an appropriate way by utilizing the DMF in an attempt to notify policyholder beneficiaries and provide them with the death benefits to which they were entitled, "stated Commissioner McCarty.

This examination report follows an earlier announcement of a multistate settlement with ING, the seventh insurer to enter into a regulatory settlement agreement with state insurance regulators addressing this issue. As of now, the state insurance regulators have either reached settlements or concluded the investigation of eight of the top twenty companies constituting 42.5% of the total market. The efforts of the Task Force continue to be focused on the examination of the remaining top 32 insurers.

For more information about this issue, visit the Office's Life Claim Settlement Practices (http://www.floir.com/sections/landh/life_claims_settlement_practices_hearing05192011.aspx) website page.

CC AutoTriage7sm-130821-30TagarumaMar-4462108 30TagarumaMar