New York Recovers $1.1B in Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits

New York officials say they have helped recover more than $1.1 billion in unclaimed life insurance benefits nationwide.

The state’s Department of Financial Services says Wednesday that many insurance companies were not using lists of recent deaths from the Social Security Administration to determine if a policy holder had died. That meant if family members did not know there was a life insurance policy or forgot to file a claim, the policy went unpaid.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says state investigators working with insurance companies were able to make payments to 100,000 consumers nationwide, including more than 25,000 New York residents.

As a result of New York’s investigation, insurers used Social Security master file to investigate unclaimed policies.