MetLife Reveals MA Information Demand on Bay State Insurance Quotes

March 7, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Massachusetts Attorney General has demanded data and documents from insurer MetLife Inc. about the company's business bids and quotes submitted to potential customers in the Bay State.

According to MetLife’s  Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing , the subpoena from Attorney General Tom Reilly also seeks the identity of agents, brokers and producers to whom the company submitted such bids or quotes, and communications with a certain specific unidentified broker.

The company also revealed in its SEC-filed annual report, that, in response to a series of separate information demands, it has informed New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office that, based upon an internal review, MetLife was not aware of any instance in which MetLife had provided a “fictitious” or “inflated” quote. MetLife also has received a subpoena, including a set of interrogatories, from Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal looking for information and documents about contingent commission payments to brokers and MetLife’s awareness of any sham bids for business, MetLife said in the document.

The world’s No.1 and No. 2 insurance brokers, Marsh & McLennan Cos. (See  MMC Settles ‘Shameful’ Bid-Rigging Case ) and Aon Corp. respectively, have already paid a total of more than $1 billion and agreed to change business practices to settle charges they rigged bids in the insurance market.

The ongoing state/federal investigation of brokers is centered on secret payments brokers accepted to steer clients to favored insurers.

MetLife said it continues to conduct an internal review of its commission payment practices and is cooperating with authorities.

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