For Policyholders and Shareholders
Are you a policyholder of a mutual insurance company or a shareholder of a corporation?
AKZ works to ensure that company executives act in the best interests of their owners.
At the request of shareholders or policyholders who become clients, AKZ assesses company/corporate charters, by-laws, proxy statements (and any transaction documents) to make sure they fully protect our clients’ ownership interests, and provided for transparency and accountability.
- In Silverman v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, we represented policyholders who alleged the insurer distributed misleading proxies concerning its mutual holding company conversion which, as structured, would harm the policyholders' interests. Through litigation and settlement, the company fixed its proxy and agreed to substantive changes in how it operated and paid $850,000 in costs.
- In Harhen v. John Hancock Life Insurance Company, we represented a policyholder challenging John Hancock’s expenditure of company funds to defend a senior company employee convicted of bribery. We established on appeal for the first time in Massachusetts that mutual policyholders have the right to sue their insurance company’s executives for spending company money when it was not in the best interests of the company.
