CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Treasurer John Perdue anticipates he’ll be able to turn over millions of dollars to beneficiaries of life insurance policies following a written opinion this week from the state Supreme Court.
The opinion said insurance companies must determine if a policy holder is dead and if they can’t make that determine the money must go to the state unclaimed property fund that Perdue oversees.
“This is a great decision for the state of West Virginia and first of all I want to commend the justices of the high court for siding with the people of West Virginia in clarifying what insurance companies have property and what is unclaimed,” Perdue said.
Perdue said he was fed up with insurance companies arguing that that they were exempt from the laws that other companies face and that’s why he filed suit against 63 separate companies.
“It’s a great decision for us. It clears up a lot of issues that helps us really be able to find the rightful owners of their property.” he said.
Perdue said that in West Virginia alone, there are millions of dollars being withheld by insurance companies.
“I’ve had to try to audit or try to get the insurance companies to turn that over and now they’ll turn that property over to unclaimed property,” Perdue said. “And as the Custodian of Unclaimed Property in the Treasurer’s Office, as you know, we lead the nation and we’re returning the money to our citizens of our great state.”
Perdue also said that West Virginia’s decision could pave the way for other states to make similar decisions.
“Now they’re going to have to start returning them to the state of West Virginia, the unclaimed property and that gives us a great opportunity to really find the life insurance policies from the parents or grandparents or aunts and uncles or someone bought that they didn’t know about and that now becomes the property of West Virginia.”
The High Court’s opinion overturned a lower court ruling from Putnam County Circuit Judge Joseph Reeder who ruled the insurance companies didn’t have to respond unless a claim was filed in connection with the policy.