Insurance Policy Dividends
Are you certain you are receiving the full amount of life insurance policy dividends owed to you by law?
AKZ works to ensure that insurance companies pay the full amount of policy dividends owed to their policyholders.
Some states, such as Massachusetts, require a life insurance company to pay out all excess profits above a defined amount to its policyholders as policy dividends. But many insurance companies don’t like to pay out claims, or dividends, so they retain profits that rightfully belong to their policyholders. In those circumstances, we represent the entire class of policyholders in a lawsuit against the insurance company to recover those underpayments.
- In Goldstein v. Savings Bank Life Ins. Co., we certified a contested class of 400,000 policyholders and after extensive motion practice and discovery successfully settled the matter for a recovery valued at $21.5 million for an alleged underpayment of policy dividends in violation of Massachusetts law.
- Bacchi v. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, filed as a class action and heavily litigated, has been settled by the parties subject to the approval of the federal court where the matter is pending. A court-ordered notice was disseminated to Class Members on or before May 3, 2017 and is also available on the settlement website along with additional information about the case. Please visit mmlisettlement.com to learn more, including the important dates and deadlines. A fairness hearing is scheduled for July 27, 2017. In this matter, Plaintiff contends that MassMutual retained profits that it was required to distribute as dividends to its participating policyholders.
- Harshbarger v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, filed as a class action, contends that Penn Mutual retained profits that it was required to distribute as dividends to its participating policyholders. The matter has been litigated in federal court and before the state insurance department where it is ongoing.
