Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company - Death Benefit Controversies

Death Benefit Controversies

In October 2012, Nationwide paid $7.2 Million to resolve a prove of its payouts for death benefits in a probe lead by a multistate task force headed by Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty. The task force stated that over $1 billion of death benefits was not paid to consumers by multiple companies, including Nationwide, MetLife, Prudential Financial Inc., and Manulife Financial Corp, because of customers failure to file a claims report. The pact reached with the task force will commit Nationwide and other insurers to compare its records against the Social Security Death Index and conduct a search for beneficiaries. The language in life insurance policies make it clear that it is up to the beneficiaries to notify the insurer, however few companies have fallen back on this argument due to public relations fallout.