Mass Settles Class Action Lawsuit Over Dividends

[Justin Bilyj]

I got a piece of mail yesterday telling me of rights to receive a payout if you had a perm policy with Mass.

After reading about the complaint, I guess it started 4 years ago, it looks like Mass misrepresented how they calculate the safety fund and sent back less dividends to owners. Mass settled this, hence the 37.5 million payout.
There's a possibility Mass will have another class action over prohibiting policy owners to vote in the board of elections, and instead giving that privilege to people who had policies put on themselves rather to the owner who took out the policy.

Anyone hear of this stuff or have an opinion on this? I wonder how many other large insurers are/have/will get sued over dividends?

One thing I find curious is how the lady found out about the fund calculations who's isnt known outside of Mass...

https://www.law360.com/articles/468287

 

[somarco]

Probably a "whistle blower"

The thing about these suits is, MM will not have to fund the payout. The cost will be borne by policyholders. And those policyholders, myself included, will receive pennies on the dollar.

This process holds true for publicly traded companies. The company doesn't pay the fines, the settlements, etc. Their customer base pays it.

 

[VolAgent]

Probably a "whistle blower"

The thing about these suits is, MM will not have to fund the payout. The cost will be borne by policyholders. And those policyholders, myself included, will receive pennies on the dollar.

This process holds true for publicly traded companies. The company doesn't pay the fines, the settlements, etc. Their customer base pays it.

They also just settled a class action over their 401k for career agents.

 

[Justin Bilyj]

Probably a "whistle blower"

The thing about these suits is, MM will not have to fund the payout. The cost will be borne by policyholders. And those policyholders, myself included, will receive pennies on the dollar.

This process holds true for publicly traded companies. The company doesn't pay the fines, the settlements, etc. Their customer base pays it.

I thought that same thing about it being a whistle-blower. I also agree with you the policy holders will be stuck holding the bag.

They also just settled a class action over their 401k for carrier agents.

I saw that.

I wonder if the other mutuals or life ins. has this stuff going on...

 

[VolAgent]

I thought that same thing about it being a whistle-blower. I also agree with you the policy holders will be stuck holding the bag.



I saw that.

I wonder if the other mutuals or life ins. has this stuff going on...

I suspect that was just a typical "expenses are too high in the 401k" lawsuit. There have been quite a few of those and I'm sure more to come.

The dividend one is interesting. If they weren't paying the money out in dividends, what were they doing with it?