Law Commons^™

Constraining Monitors, Veronica Root

Journal Articles

Monitors oversee remediation efforts at dozens, if not hundreds, of institutions that are guilty of misconduct. The remediation efforts that the monitors of today engage in are, in many instances, quite similar to activities that were once subject to formal court oversight. But as the importance and power of monitors has increased, the court’s oversight of monitors and the agreements that most often result in monitorships has, at best, been severely diminished and, at worst, vanished altogether.

The lack of regulation governing monitors is well documented; yet, the academic literature on monitorships to date has largely taken the state of …

Dead Or Alive? The Law, Policy, And Market Effects Of Legislation On Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits, James M. Carson, Robert E. Hoyt, Tim R. Samples

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

A wave of multi-state audits on the insurance industry’s use of the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File (DMF) stirred national controversy over the status of unclaimed life insurance proceeds. Multi-state investigations uncovered “asymmetric” use of the DMF among many large insurance companies. Accusations of unethical behavior led to numerous settlement agreements between state regulators and insurers. Payouts and fines stemming from these settlements already number in the billions of dollars. Legislative responses are also underway. Some states have adopted—and others are considering—legislation requiring life insurers to search the DMF to identify and pay (or eascheat) unclaimed death benefits. Currently, …