Dec 2, 2005

More on California LTD Insurance Litigation

I have been unable to find a copy of the order that brought about the litigation between the insurance industry and the California Department of Insurance, but there is a history of conflict over Long Term Disability (LTD) policies in California.

In February 2004 the California Insurance Department issued a letter banning discretionary clauses that gave LTD insurers nearly unfettered discretion in interpreting the meaning of disability in LTD insurance plans on the grounds that this sort of plan was "unsound insurance."

In October 2005, the California Department of Insurance settled a lawsuit with Unum-Provident, the nation's largest writer of LTD insurance. Under the settlement Unum-Provident was hit with a $8 million fine for knowlingly applying the wrong definiton of disability and for abuses of independent medical exams.

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