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General American Life /
GenAmerica - Missing Policy Search
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General American Life /
GenAmerica - Missing Policy Search
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General American Life - GenAmerica Missing Policies and Unclaimed Demutualization Compensation |
General American Life - GenAmericaIn 1998 General American Life, a subsidiary of GenAmerica, announced a plan to convert from a mutual holding company structure to that of a publicly traded stock company. Shortly thereafter, however, on August 10, 1999, the Missouri Department of Insurance placed General American Life Insurance Company under an order of administrative supervision. The cause of the supervision order was the company's inability to satisfy the liquidity demands for $5 billion in withdrawals by 37 institutional clients, holders of funding agreement contracts held by General American. Demutualization is the process of converting a mutual life insurance company, owned by its policyholders, to a publicly traded stock company owned by shareholders, pursuant to a plan of conversion approved by government regulators. The amount paid to policyholders is based on a number of factors, including length of time the policy has been in force, face value of the policy, and total premiums paid. For many policyholders, the windfall arising from demutualization can be substantial, but millions of missing policyholders and heirs aren't aware they are entitled to receive compensation. As a result of the supervision order, Instead of the announced demutualization General American accepted agreed to be acquired by MetLife. The $1.2 billion sale price paid by MetLife was deposited in an account for the benefit of General American Mutual Holding Company policyholders and heirs.
Between one-quarter and one-half of all life insurance policies go unclaimed, because it is generally up to family members to notify the insurance company when a policyholder dies, and virtually no effort is made to find lost beneficiaries. In addition, hundreds of thousands of missing policyholders aren't aware they are entitled to receive this 'demutualization' compensation. Contact efforts were unsuccessful, due to name changes after marriage or divorce, unreported changes of address, expired postal forwarding orders and non-current beneficiary information. By law, unclaimed policy benefits, including demutualization compensation, are remitted to the custody of a government trust account until claimants come forward. Last year government custodians collected $22.8 billion, of which less than $1 billion was claimed. It is highly recommended that current and former policyholders and heirs - the majority of whom are unaware they're entitled to unclaimed policy benefits, stock & cash - initiate an Unclaimed Life Insurance Policy Search
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