Springfield, Ill (WAND) – Illinois Treasurer Mike Frerichs is heading back to court in Springfield seeking to force Kemper Corporation to allow an audit of unpaid life insurance proceeds.
Companies failing to pay beneficiaries of life insurance policies was the subject of a November 2016 WAND News I-TEAM report. From 2011 to 2016 the state treasurer’s office used audits to identify nearly $550 million in unpaid life benefits. Nationally, audits have discovered an estimated $7.4 billion in unpaid life benefits.
Frerichs contends Kemper continues to refuse to allow an audit to confirm it is paying death benefits owed to Illinois residents. Frerichs says he is resuming litigation in a Sangamon County court to force the examination of Kemper’s books.
“My hope was to settle this out of court, but Kemper refuses to do the right thing and simply allow our auditors to make sure Illinois residents are not owed money that belongs to them,” Frerichs said in a prepared statement. “I have yet to meet a man or woman who purchased a life insurance policy with the intent to help a billion-dollar company rather than their own family.”
Unpaid death benefits are considered unclaimed property. In Illinois, unclaimed property is the responsibility of the state treasurer’s office.
(Pictured: State Representative Sue Scherer, (D) Decatur, looks over an unpaid life policy in 2016.)
