Editorial
Tulsa World
We back state Treasurer Ken Miller’s resistance to insurance companies that want to control unclaimed life insurance benefits.
Surprising as it might sound, sometimes life insurance benefits go unclaimed: People die, and for whatever reason, their heirs don’t file a claim, typically because they don’t know about the policies.
Miller has identified $14 million in unclaimed life insurance benefits and thinks his office eventually will find another $23 million. Nationally, there is about $1 billion in unclaimed life insurance benefits.
Currently, when the state’s examiners find unclaimed benefits, the money goes into the state unclaimed property fund, where it is held in trust while the treasurer’s office looks for the rightful heirs. Among other things, the treasurer’s office searches for missing claimants through high-profile lists regularly published in newspapers, booths at the state fair and a web site: yourmoney.ok.gov.
Some insurance companies have suggested that they should get to control that money (and keep the investment income) while they look for the heirs.
The treasurer’s office has a strong system for finding people who are due unclaimed assets and returning that money, and a strong motivation for making sure that the system works — the political good will that the system creates.
There’s no reason to fiddle with that system.
Miller has is right. I’m glad to see the World stepping up to defend his actions.