Transfers the liability for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (Metlife) claim-over payments to the abandoned property fund; provides that the comptroller shall pay a person or the estate of a person entitled to a Metlife claim-over payment upon that person's presentation of a valid claim.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
313
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 7, 2009
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HAYES -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Insurance
AN ACT to amend the insurance law and the abandoned property law, in
relation to transferring the liability for Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company (MetLife) claim-over payments to the abandoned property fund
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subsection (c) of section 7435 of the insurance law is
2 relettered subsection (d) and a new subsection (c) is added to read as
3 follows:
4 (c) Effective January first, two thousand ten, the liability for
5 claim-over payments due and payable to former owners of single premium
6 deferred annuities issued by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
7 (MetLife) pursuant to the plan for rehabilitation for Executive Life
8 Insurance Company of New York (ELNY), issued March twenty-sixth, nine-
9 teen hundred ninety-two, shall be deemed transferred to the abandoned
10 property fund, as defined in subdivision (a) of section one hundred
11 three of the abandoned property law, and administered by the state comp-
12 troller. Prior to such date the superintendent shall provide to the
13 state comptroller a full account of all claim-over payments and accrued
14 interest owed and the names, addresses and all other information neces-
15 sary for the comptroller to effectuate payment of such claim-over
16 payments to such former owners or their estates, as the case may be. The
17 superintendent shall notify all affected claimants that, effective Janu-
18 ary first, two thousand ten, they may make application to the office of
19 unclaimed funds for amounts due and owing pursuant to such plan for
20 rehabilitation.
21 § 2. Subsection (d) of section 7435 of the insurance law, as relet-
22 tered by section one of this act, is amended by adding a new paragraph 4
23 to read as follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02857-01-9
A. 313 2
1 (4) "Claim-over payments" means the amount owed, including accrued
2 interest, as of January first, two thousand ten pursuant to the plan for
3 rehabilitation of ELNY, issued March twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred
4 ninety-two, to former ELNY policyholders who elected to exchange a
5 single premium deferred annuity contract issued by such company for a
6 single premium deferred annuity contract issued by MetLife and, subse-
7 quent to such exchange, fully surrendered their MetLife single premium
8 deferred annuity before the applicable surrender charges decreased to
9 zero, pursuant to the terms of the rehabilitation plan.
10 § 3. The abandoned property law is amended by adding a new section
11 1423 to read as follows:
12 § 1423. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) claim-over
13 payments. 1. Upon presentation of a valid claim subsequent to January
14 first, two thousand nine by a person or the estate of a person entitled
15 to a MetLife claim-over payment, as defined in paragraph four of
16 subsection (d) of section seven thousand four hundred thirty-five of the
17 insurance law, the comptroller shall forthwith pay such claim pursuant
18 to section one thousand four hundred seven of this article.
19 2. Upon the earlier of (a) the liquidation of the Executive Life of
20 New York (ELNY) estate and a determination by the rehabilitator that a
21 payout of ninety-five percent or ninety-seven and one-half percent, as
22 appropriate and determined pursuant to the plan for rehabilitation for
23 ELNY issued March twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred ninety-two, of obli-
24 gations to ELNY single premium immediate annuity beneficiaries could
25 have been funded with certainty or, (b) the rehabilitator of the estate
26 of ELNY has determined that, due to ELNY's ownership of sufficient
27 assets having appropriate quality and liquidity, claim-over payments
28 could have been made to the former owners or the estates of former
29 owners of MetLife single premium deferred annuities pursuant to such
30 plan for rehabilitation, such claim-over payments that would have been
31 made to former owners of MetLife single premium deferred annuities
32 pursuant to such rehabilitation plan shall be made to the abandoned
33 property fund. Such claim-over payments shall be deemed an asset of the
34 abandoned property fund.
35 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
