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 "Met Life" ...
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Profiting from Fallen Soldiers
Bloomberg finds that more than 130 life insurance companies have been profiting from the death benefits owed to family service members and government workers.
Tags: soldiers; death benefits; life insurance; Prudential; Met Life
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Profiting From Fallen Soldiers
In this series, reporter David Evans exposed how "more than 130 life insurance companies" devised a system that allowed them to profit from death benefits that were "owed to families of service members, government workers and millions of other Americans." MetLife and Prudential led the scheme. Evans revealed that the companies withheld $28 billion owed to the families of deceased soldiers. The story prompted "almost immediate changes in U.S. government policies."
Tags: life insurance; MetLife; Prudential; Robert Gates; Veterans; taxpayer; American Legion; military
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"Disabled and Denied"
Reporter Evan George's investigation found that insurance companies repeatedly deny legitimate claims and often cut off coverage from disabled middle-class workers. There is no real downside for the insurance companies to deny claims any many disabled workers give up without a fight.
Tags: MetLife; insurance; disability; Unum; The Hartford
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Web of Deceit
Through the experiences of a couple which arranged an adoption with a pregnant woman they met online, Dateline NBC examines how such an arrangement can easily be a scam. These situations are "unevenly regulated and potentially risky for all involved." In this case, the couple was "given false promises of a baby to adopt in exchange for hundreds of dollars that they believed were paying for the pregnant woman's rent and food." But through public records, it was found that the woman was using a false name, "and careful surveillance showed she was lying about many other critical aspects of her life." Also, "Dateline was able to determine that the same woman had also duped at least five other families." The woman was eventually charged with a felony.
Tags: adoption; Internet scams; misrepresentation; false pregnancy
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The First Father
This story investigates the roots and history of former President Bill Clinton. The author traces the politician's life back to the biological father he never met. Includes new information (at the time of publication) that provides insight into Clinton's childhood and past.
Tags: politics; Bill Clinton; president; history; United States; father
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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
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In Black And White
"Non-whites present special insurance problems..." the Wall Street Journal quotes a MetLife letter from 1964. MetLife, worried that increasing minority populations in the inner cities would increase lifeinsurance payout because of higher death rates, engaged in the practice of "area underwriting," by which policy prices are determined by the demogarphics of a geographical area when race data is not allowed to be directly collected.
Tags: insurance; MetLife; area underwriting
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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
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Partners in peril
This series of articles tells the story of two rookie police officers who met and bonded in the police academy. Quickly earning the respect of their superiors, the two officers worked the most demanding shifts and made many arrests. Their ambitious attitudes got them assigned to a night shift in an unmarked car and into a surveillance job that would cost one of the officers his life.
Tags: police; Chicago police
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Amy's Story
CBS News 60 Minutes reports that "Amy Biehl went to South Africa to study and write about women in emerging democracies and to realize a life-long dream of working to build a free South Africa. Most people remember her story: Biehl, a Fullbright scholar and All-American athlete was murdered in South Africa in 1993 by a mob of black teenagers -- some of the very people she was there trying to help..... To cope with her death, (her parents) did not seek vengeance, justice or therapy.... The Biehls now spend more than half their time in South Africa, and in the five years since Amy's death, they've met their daughter's killers who have been released from prison and forgiven them. And they've picked up where their daughter left off...."