Wall Street Journal article by LESLIE SCISM

Three children of a New York City firefighter who died in 2005 at age 91 and the daughter of a dentist who died in 2000 as an octogenarian are among the 1,209 New Yorkers benefiting from a crackdown on insurers to pay overdue death benefits.

State residents have received a total of $16.9 million in recent months, thanks to the push by officials here and in other states to make life insurers cross-check customer rosters against a Social Security Administration death database, according to a report released last week by the New York’s Department of Financial Services.

Now, a human face on the problem—which state officials say could total $1 billion nationally—is emerging, as some of the New York beneficiaries agreed to help the department publicize the matter by giving interviews.

“If the beneficiary is aware, they should do their part [and file a claim], but there are instances when someone lives into their later years, and they’re physically unable to convey that a policy exists,” said Karen Masucci, daughter of firefighter, roofer and appliance-repairman Norman Kattenstroth, who died in 2005 at age 91.

…..

New York officials said the matching efforts they pushed this summer for insurers licensed in the state yielded $52.6 million in payments to a total of 8,000 people, including the New Yorkers.

The largest payout was $673,485; the average in New York was about $14,000, while across the country payments averaged less than half that. Many of the smaller payments are decades old and may have been bought to largely cover funeral expenses. The most overdue payment dated to 1970.

Insurers are processing an additional 28,000 claims, while continuing to check out hundreds of thousands of other potential matches, the state said.

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