Missouri Insurance Lawyer Blog

The Missouri Department of Insurance states some insurance companies are setting unreasonable timelines for Joplin homeowners attempting to rebuild after the May 22nd tornado. The department issued a bulletin to the industry stating many home and business owners can't be expected to rebuild within the time limits required by some insurance policies.

In the bulletin, John M. Huff, director of the Department of Insurance, states the unprecedented scale of the Joplin tornado prevented many consumers from access to their property and led to a temporary building cessation. He also says the widespread devastation has left the entire area with a shortage of contractors and materials. This has clearly made it impossible for many property owners to rebuild within six months. Six months is the time frame that insurance policies require before paying full benefits.

The bulletin says insurance companies attempting to enforce deadlines of less than one year may face legal action by the department.

Per Huff: "The insurance industry has done a commendable job responding to the tornado, having paid more than a billion dollars in claims so far. At the same time, Missouri law requires insurers to provide prompt, fair and equitable settlements to their policyholders, and rigid deadlines may violate that law."

Huff expects the dollar figure for claims paid in homeowners, auto and commercial property to approach $2 billion by the time all claims are settled. Policyholders have filed nearly 18,000 insurance claims.

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"My mother had a life insurance policy, but I don't have a copy - I don't even know the name of the insurance company." This is a common scenario for consumers who contact the Missouri Department of insurance. Now, for the first time, consumers have a way to contact licensed insurance companies across the state. This offers a chance to find information on deceased loved ones.

The Missouri Department of Insurance has created the Life Policy Locator service in order to help consumers find lost life insurance policies or annuity contracts purchased in Missouri. The department collects information from consumers and sends it electronically each month to licensed life insurance companies across the state.

Missouri Insurance Director John M. Huff says "This program is technology at its best - we are helping connect consumers with life insurance and annuity benefits that they are entitled to receive. Hard-copy mailings to Missouri's life insurance industry each month would be unaffordable and unmanageable. This project is possible only because of our online technology that connects us to major life insurers."

Executors and legal representatives, as well as people who believe they are beneficiaries can file a search request form with the Department of Insurance. Completed forms must be notarized and include a copy of the original death certificate prior to mailing to the department.

Requests will be forwarded to Missouri-licensed life insurance companies every month. In turn, Insurance companies will contact the beneficiary if a policy is located.

The insurance company will not make contact with the individual requesting information if the person making the request is not legally entitled to the information regarding the life insurance policy or annuity. However, the request for information will prompt the company to begin a search for the beneficiaries named on the policy.

Questions about the Life Policy Locator can be directed to the department's Insurance Consumer Hotline at 800-726-7390 or visit insurance.mo.gov.
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