After years of pursuing life insurers with Cost of Insurance (COI) class actions, we are now seeing a new life insurance secondary market investor strategy — suing life insurers on a class action basis for not paying enough...more
On August 19, 2019 a federal judge in the Northern District of California denied State Farm Life Insurance Company’s (State Farm) motion for summary judgment on Plaintiff Elizabeth A. Bally’s claims for conversion and breach...more
The Southern District of Indiana recently dismissed a putative class action alleging that the defendant-insurer improperly inflated premiums and cost of insurance (COI) rates on universal life policies....more
Life insurers that defend challenges to their exercises of discretion to adjust cost of insurance (COI) rates on universal life insurance policies continue to seek opportunities to narrow the scope of the claims through early...more
In EFG Bank AG, Cayman Branch v. AXA and The Duffy 2004 LLC v. AXA, in a February 14 ruling, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company earned a sweet victory on its motion for partial dismissal of the complaints in two...more
Suits challenging insurers’ cost of insurance (COI) rate increases continue to generate much activity. In recent months, this activity has included transfers, consolidations, several actions that are inching closer to...more
In July, in Hancock v. Americo Financial Life & Annuity Co., Americo achieved a total victory on its motion to dismiss a putative class action in the Eastern District of North Carolina that challenged its premium and COI...more
Starting in 2015 and continuing into 2016, a number of insurance carriers raised the cost of insurance ("COI") rates on universal life insurance policies, resulting in dramatic increases to the premiums required to keep the...more
As illustrated by the two examples here, recent decisions on preliminary motions seeking to dispose of or narrow the scope of claims challenging COI rate determinations suggest the industry may be enmeshed in litigation for...more
Plaintiffs lawyers have been challenging cost of insurance (COI) charges for years, with mixed success. The recent decision by the Indiana Court of Appeals, titled Lincoln National Ins. Co. v. Bezich, is the latest in this...more
In December, insurers battling challenges to their exercises of discretion in setting non-guaranteed elements in universal life policies received a boost when the Seventh Circuit, via companion opinions, affirmed the...more