CRANSTON – Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. will continue refunding life insurance premiums it inadvertently collected after policies or coverage had expired, according to a consent agreement between the company and state regulators.
The agreement, dated Aug. 19, calls for MetLife to “complete the remediation process” even after having refunded more than $1.2 million in premiums to more than 10,000 policyholders during an investigation by the R.I. Department of Business Regulation’s Division of Insurance.
MetLife also agreed to reverse its decisions to deny 13 claims and pay out $225,000 plus interest to those policyholders.
In addition, the company agreed to improve its processes and procedures for tracking policies to better provide customers with notice about the status of their coverage.
Rhode Island’s investigation began after three complaints were filed against MetLife in 2017 and 2018 after the company denied claims on life insurance policies in the deaths of three children, the agreement states.
MetLife denied those claims on the basis that the children had passed the age of eligibility for the policies or that the policies were no longer in effect. Apparently, that was unbeknownst to the policyholders, who continued paying premiums and the company continued to accept the payments, the department found.
It prompted the department “to ask additional questions concerning whether [MetLife] was tracking sufficient information regarding its group universal life and group variable universal life certificate holders and their dependents’ eligibility for the dependent term rider’s additional coverage or whether [MetLife] was sufficiently notifying its certificate holders regarding the expiration of their in-force dependent child coverage,” the agreement states.
The department “also became similarly concerned regarding the efforts that [MetLife] was taking to remind its group universal life and group variable universal life certificate holders to report changes in marital status for optional dependent spousal insurance coverage,” the agreement states.
As a result, MetLife mailed out more than 100,000 letters to policyholders nationwide to clarify the status of their policies. More than 10,000 of them responded, saying they had been paying for policies before learning that they no longer had an eligible spouse or dependent for coverage.
Moreover, MetLife agreed to pay a $15,000 administrative fee to the state to resolve the matter.
Scott Blake is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Blake@PBN.com.
