The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "General American Life Insurance Company" ...
-
Mutual Insurer Found Way to "Demutualize" That's Fast and Cheap
Roger K. Brooks, the Chief Executive of American Mutual Life Insurance, Co., found a way to "demutualize." Unfortunately, he may have misled his policyholders in doing so. the company is 1995 asked its policyholders to vote to convert the operation into a "mutual holding company." But policyholders were not told that they would get neither stock nor cash in return, and now some believe they have been cheated.
Tags: Mutual funds
-
Too Little Coverage: How General American got fancy in investing, lost its independence. Funding agreements proved costly customers all wanted out at once. Fateful ratings downgrade.
According to the article, "...Moody's Investors Service lowered by one notch its ratings on General American Life Insurance Co.'s debt and financial strength . ... The downgrading set off a chain reaction involving some unusual investments in which the company was participating. Within days,the fast-moving events had cost the 66-year-old company its independence."
Tags: General American; finances; money; problems; financial strength; downgrading; General American Life Insurance Company; Moody Investors Service
-
Past Due
Paltrow reports that "in relic of '50s and '60s blacks still pay more for a type of insurance," and that companies didn't fix old policies.
Tags: African Americans; blacks; race; differentiation; life-insurance; polices
-
In Black and White: Old Memos Lay Bare Metlife's Use of Race to Screen Customers
The Wall Street Journal looks at the practice of MetLife, "the largest publicly held life insurer", to systematically discriminate against nonwhite customers. The story reveals that although the company claims to have stopped practicing race-based underwriting decades ago, "new documents show ... that race-based practices remained in effect years longer, and applied to a much wider range of policies." The investigation exposes "techniques not disclosed before, such as subjecting nonwhites to a more complicated application process, which tended to limit them to smaller policies costing more and carrying fewer benefits." The article points to examples of racial underwriting and follows lawsuits related to the issue.
Tags: race; minorities; blacks; African-Americans; civil rights; litigation; area underwriting; life insurance
-
The Widower's Tale
The New Yorker investigates the death of Tracy Thomas, a six months pregnant woman, in a car crash in New Jersey in 1997. The report depicts her and her husband as belonging to "the first generation of middle-class African-American people...." The story reveals that one month before she died, her husband "had increased the death benefit of her life-insurance policy." The reporter uncovers a belated doctors' conclusion: "Mrs. Thomas died of compression of the neck by the hands of another." The investigation describes how the widower has tried to prove that his wife's death is related to air-bag injuries, and reports on his lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company..
Tags: murder; strangulation; Cape May Court House; police; forensic doctors
-
Uncovered Losses: Life Insurers' Race Bias In Decades Past Affects Policyholders Even Now; MetLife, for One, Remedied Some but Not All Effects Of Inequality to Blacks; A Curious List of Risky Jobs
The Wall Street Journal reveals that MetLife Insurance Company's past discriminatory policies have not been entirely remedied. Before 1959, MetLife gave preferential treatment to whites; whites received better policies than blacks. (Salesmen, in fact, were not allowed the offer black customers the best policies MetLife had to offer.) MetLife claims to have discontinued its discrimination, however, many of the companies' older, black clients still have inferior policies. For example, when the company converted into a publicly held institution in 2000, it had to give out stock to its policyholders. Many of the companies older, black customers received less stock than white customers who had purchased similar coverage for the same amount at the same time. The Wall Street Journal reveals that MetLife is being investigated by agencies from all 50 states, focusing on the current effects of its past practices.
Tags: MetLife; racisim; discrimination; insurance; bias; black; African-American; life-insurance; policy; investigation