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Contingencies | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2013
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Contingencies | Note 13 - Contingencies In the ordinary course of its businesses, the Company is involved in legal proceedings, including lawsuits, regulatory examinations and inquiries. Except with regard to the matter discussed below, based on currently available information, the Company does not believe that it is reasonably possible that any of its pending legal proceedings will have a material effect on the Company’s financial statements. Certain state insurance regulators, legislators and treasurers/controllers are involved in an array of initiatives that could result in significant changes to unclaimed property laws and claims handling practices with respect to life insurance policies. These initiatives seek, in various ways, to impose new duties on the part of life insurance companies to proactively search for deaths of their insureds and contact the insureds’ beneficiaries prior to the submission of death claims by such beneficiaries as required under standard life insurance policy contracts. Legislation enacted in Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New York, North Dakota and Vermont, with varying effective dates between January 1, 2013 and July 1, 2014 (the “DMF Statutes”), require life insurance companies to compare on a regular basis their records for all in-force policies (including those policies issued prior to the effective dates of the legislation) against the database of reported deaths maintained by the Social Security Administration or a similar database or resource (a “Death Master File”). In contrast, New Mexico has enacted legislation that also requires such comparisons, but exempts life insurance companies, like Kemper’s life insurance subsidiaries (the “Life Companies”), that have not previously utilized a Death Master File, and instead only requires that such companies conduct Death Master File comparisons for life insurance policies issued and delivered in New Mexico after the legislation’s July 1, 2013 effective date. Likewise, Alabama, which had previously enacted a statute similar to the DMF Statutes, has amended its statute to limit the policies required to be compared against a Death Master File only to policies issued on or after January 1, 2016. Kemper cannot predict whether or when other states might enact legislation similar to the DMF Statutes, or the exact form or approach that such legislation might take. In November 2012, certain of the Life Companies filed a declaratory judgment action in state court in Kentucky asking the court to construe the Kentucky DMF Statute to apply only prospectively - i.e., only with respect to those life insurance policies issued in Kentucky on or after the effective date of the Kentucky DMF Statute - consistent with what the Life Companies believe are the requirements of applicable Kentucky statutory law and Kentucky and federal constitutional provisions. On April 1, 2013, the trial court denied the subject Life Companies’ motion for summary judgment and held that the requirements of the Kentucky DMF Statute apply to life insurance policies issued before the statute’s January 1, 2013 effective date. The subject Life Companies believe that the court did not correctly apply governing law and have appealed the trial court’s decision to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, which issued a stay of enforcement of the Kentucky DMF Statute against the subject Life Companies pending the appeal. A decision by the Court of Appeals is unlikely before the second half of 2014. In July 2013, certain of the Life Companies filed a declaratory judgment action in state court in Maryland, asking the court to construe the Maryland DMF Statute to apply only to policies issued in Maryland after the effective date of the statute for essentially the same reasons asserted in the Kentucky proceeding. The State of Maryland defendants filed a motion to dismiss the action on the grounds that the subject Life Companies did not exhaust their administrative remedies before filing the court action. Kemper cannot predict when the trial court in Maryland might rule on the state’s motion to dismiss. The Life Companies are the subject of an unclaimed property compliance audit (the “Treasurers’ Audit”) being conducted by a private audit firm retained by the treasurers/controllers of thirty-eight states (the “Audit Firm”). In July 2013, the California State Controller (the “CA Controller”) filed a complaint for injunctive relief against the Life Companies in state court in California, seeking an order requiring the Life Companies to produce all of their in-force policy records to the Audit Firm to enable the firm to perform a comparison of such records against a Death Master File and to ascertain whether any of the insureds under such policies may be deceased. As described below, the suit by the CA Controller is the subject of a counterclaim by the Life Companies. The Life Companies are the subject of a multi-state market conduct examination by six state insurance regulators of their claim settlement and policy administration practices, and specifically regarding compliance with state unclaimed property statutes (the “Multi-state Exam”). The Multi-state Exam was originated in June 2012 as a single-state examination by the Illinois Insurance Director. Insurance regulators from five additional states - California, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and North Dakota -- joined the examination in May 2013. In July 2013, the Life Companies received requests from the Illinois Department of Insurance, as the managing lead state for the Multi-state Exam, for a significant volume of additional information, including their records of in-force policies and other information requested by the Audit Firm as part of the Treasurers’ Audit and which is the subject of the CA Controller’s complaint. Note 13 - Contingencies (continued) During September 2013, certain of the Life Companies filed declaratory judgment actions against the insurance regulators in the states of California, Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania, asking the courts in those states to declare that applicable law does not require life insurers to search a Death Master File to ascertain whether insureds are deceased. The subject Life Companies are also asking the courts to declare that regulators in those states do not have the legal authority to (i) obtain life insurers’ policy records for the purpose of comparing those records against a Death Master File, and (ii) impose payment obligations on life insurers before a claim and due proof of death have been submitted. The declaratory judgment action in California was filed as a counterclaim to the CA Controller’s complaint, joining the California Insurance Commissioner and the Audit Firm as parties to the action. Responses from the state regulators in the four declaratory judgment actions have not yet been filed. The results of the Treasurers’ Audit, Multi-state Exam and the litigation related to these matters and the DMF Statutes cannot currently be predicted. The Life Companies continue to maintain that states lack the legal authority to establish new requirements that have the effect of changing the terms of existing life insurance contracts with regard to basic claims handling obligations and processes. If these state officials are able to apply such new requirements retroactively to the Life Companies’ existing life insurance policies, it will fundamentally alter the nature and timing of their responsibilities under such policies by effectively eliminating contractual terms that condition claim settlement and payment on the receipt of “due proof of death” of an insured. The outcome of the various state initiatives and related litigation could have a significant effect on, including acceleration of, the Life Companies’ payment and/or escheatment of policy benefits, and significantly increase their claims handling costs. Kemper cannot reasonably estimate the amount of loss that it would recognize if the Life Companies were subjected to such requirements on a retroactive basis.

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