Although most disability insureds may be thinking today, “So where do I go from here?”, the obvious is to “tread carefully.” Clients notified me that even on New Years Eve, Unum contacted its insureds supposedly for an interview. We know the truth, though, don’t we?
In the past, Unum has been known to pay its claims handlers extra to remain at work just to make phone calls to see if insureds have returned to work, or will say something that could be used to deny claims. Unum did this prior to the 1999 merger and paid its claims people $200/day for Saturday and Sunday. Some things never change – when Unum is in a financial pinch everything goes, even payoff bribery to remain at work after hours.
The good news is that at midnight last night Unum crossed over into 2022 and profitability for 2021 is said and done. Unum’s hustle to target and deny claims came to a non-graceful end once again. Phew! Claims remaining open at 12:01 escaped, at least for another year.
Since we are at the end of the year, allow me to add that good disability insurers work extremely hard to PAY claims not DENY them. In fact, this is one criteria that can always be used to identify insurers as either good or bad. Companies such as Northwestern Mutual, Principal, and Sun Life still have claims review systems that investigate claims to PAY, not DENY.
The important thing is that all claimants and insureds are in positions to move intelligently into 2022 completely aware of what they’re dealing with.
I wish everyone a Happy and Successful Benefit New Year!
