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Contingencies | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2015
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Contingencies | Note 14 - 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 matters 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 condensed consolidated financial statements. Over the last several years, certain state insurance regulators, legislators, treasurers/controllers, and their respective agents have pursued an array of initiatives that seek, in various ways, to impose new duties on life insurance companies to proactively search for deaths of their insureds and contact the insureds’ beneficiaries even though such beneficiaries may not have submitted claims, including due proof of death, as required under the terms of state-approved policy forms. These initiatives together comprise a set of circumstances involving potential changes in the law or changes in the interpretation of existing laws that could have the effect of altering the terms of Kemper’s life insurance subsidiaries’ (the “Life Companies”) existing life insurance contracts by imposing new requirements that did not exist and were not contemplated at the time the Life Companies entered into such contracts. Legislation. One type of initiative involves legislation (the “DMF Statutes”). DMF Statutes have been enacted in ten states, with varying effective dates, that require life insurance companies to compare on a regular basis their records for all in-force policies (including policies issued prior to the effective dates of the DMF Statute) against the database of reported deaths maintained by the Social Security Administration or a comparable database (a “Death Master File”). In contrast, four other states have enacted DMF Statutes that also require such comparisons, but exempt life insurance companies, like the Life Companies, that have not previously utilized a Death Master File, and instead only require that such companies conduct Death Master File comparisons for life insurance policies issued and delivered in each of those states after the DMF Statute’s effective date. Likewise, five additional states have enacted DMF Statutes that require such comparisons, but only with respect to policies issued on or after their respective effective dates, without regard to prior Death Master File use. With respect to those DMF Statutes that apply retroactively and would likely have an adverse effect on the Company’s operations and financial position, the Life Companies have filed declaratory judgment actions challenging the application of such statutes to policies issued prior to the subject DMF Statute’s effective date:
• | In November 2012, certain of the Life Companies filed a declaratory judgment action in Kentucky state court, asking the court to construe the Kentucky DMF Statute to apply only prospectively, i.e., only to 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, the Kentucky Constitution and the Contract Clause of the United States Constitution. In April 2013, the trial court held that the Kentucky DMF Statute does apply to life insurance policies issued before the statute’s January 1, 2013 effective date. The subject Life Companies appealed this decision and in August 2014, in a unanimous opinion, the Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed the trial court and held that the Kentucky DMF statute fell within Kentucky’s statutory presumption against retroactive laws. Therefore, the Court ruled, the Kentucky DMF Statute can only apply to policies issued on or after January 1, 2013. In August 2015, the Kentucky Supreme Court granted discretionary review of the Court of Appeal’s ruling. A decision by the Kentucky Supreme Court is unlikely before the second quarter of 2016. During the pendency of this appeal process, a court-issued stay provides that the subject Life Companies do not need to comply with the Kentucky DMF Statute with respect to life insurance policies issued before the statute’s effective date.
• | 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 prospectively, consistent with what the Life Companies believe are the requirements of Maryland’s common law presumption against retroactive application of new laws, the Maryland Constitution and the Contract Clause of the United States Constitution. The Maryland Insurance Administration filed a motion to dismiss, contending that the subject Life Companies were required to exhaust their administrative remedies before filing an action in court. In March 2014, the trial court granted the Maryland Insurance Administration’s motion and the Life Companies appealed that ruling. The Maryland appellate courts declined to stay enforcement of the Maryland DMF Statute pending the appeal, and the Life Companies are complying with the Maryland DMF Statute while they pursue their appeal. The Life Companies’ appeal was denied by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals in October 2015. The Life Companies intend to seek review of this decision by Maryland’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.
Note 14 - Contingencies (continued) Unclaimed property compliance audits/litigation. A second type of initiative involves an unclaimed property compliance audit of the Life Companies (the “Treasurers’ Audit”) being conducted by a private audit firm retained by the treasurers/controllers of 38 states (the “Audit Firm”) and related litigation. 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. In December 2013, the CA Controller filed a motion for preliminary injunction seeking the same injunctive relief. A hearing on that motion was continued until the California Court of Appeal ruled in a similar case involving an unaffiliated insurance company (the “ANICO Appeal”). In July 2014, the court granted a motion by the CA Controller to stay the litigation against the Life Companies pending a decision in the ANICO Appeal; as described below, the Life Companies have filed a counterclaim in this case. In March 2015, the California Court of Appeal reversed the order granting the preliminary injunction to the CA Controller in the ANICO Appeal. In light of the result in the ANICO Appeal, the stay of the litigation involving the Life Companies was lifted, and the CA Controller withdrew its motion for preliminary injunction and discovery activity has resumed. Pending the outcome of this litigation, the Life Companies have not produced their in-force policy records to the CA Controller. In October 2015, certain of the Life Companies filed a complaint for injunctive and other relief in state court in Illinois seeking a declaration that the Treasurer of the State of Illinois lacks the authority to compel those Life Companies to produce all in-force policy records to the Audit Firm and, further, that life insurance proceeds become unclaimed property subject to escheat to Illinois five years after the insurer receives a claim and proof of death or the insured attains the mortality limiting age, and not five years after the date of the insured’s death. This complaint was filed in connection with an ongoing audit by the Treasurer and in response to a recent demand for production of all in-force policy records. Examinations/enforcement actions by regulators. A third type of initiative involves examinations by state insurance regulators. The Life Companies are the subject of a pending multi-state market conduct examination by five state insurance regulators that is focused on the Life Companies’ claim settlement and policy administration practices, and specifically their compliance with state unclaimed property statutes (the “Multi-State Exam”). The Multi-State Exam originated in June 2012 as a single-state examination by the Illinois Department of Insurance. Insurance regulators from five additional states - California, Florida, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Pennsylvania - joined the examination in May 2013 (New Hampshire withdrew in 2014). 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 information beyond that which the Life Companies had already produced, including the records of all in-force policies and other information of the type previously requested by the Audit Firm as part of the Treasurers’ Audit and which is the subject of the CA Controller’s litigation; this request prompted the Illinois litigation noted below. Pending related litigation. In 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/or (ii) impose payment obligations on life insurers before a claim and due proof of death have been submitted by policy beneficiaries or the insured reaches the mortality limiting age specified therein. The declaratory judgment action in California referenced above was filed as a cross-complaint to the CA Controller’s complaint, and joined the California Insurance Commissioner and the Audit Firm as defendants. The CA Controller filed a motion to dismiss the Life Companies’ cross-complaint but withdrew the motion following the ruling in the ANICO Appeal. In response to the Illinois declaratory judgment action, the Illinois Department of Insurance and its Director (collectively, the “IDOI”) filed a motion to dismiss, and in July 2014, the court in Illinois denied, in part, such motion. Specifically, the court denied the motion to dismiss the Life Companies’ claim seeking a declaration that the IDOI cannot compel the Life Companies to provide their policy records to the IDOI or persons acting on the IDOI’s behalf so as to permit a comparison against a Death Master File for purposes of identifying deceased insureds, as well as the Life Companies’ associated claim for injunctive relief; the court dismissed the other counts in the complaint. In August 2014, the IDOI filed its answer to the remaining counts, and in October 2014, the Life Companies filed a motion for summary judgment with respect to those counts. The IDOI filed a cross motion for summary judgment in December 2014. The parties engaged in discovery and the summary judgment motions are pending. The actions against the insurance regulators in the states of Florida and Note 14 - Contingencies (continued) Pennsylvania remain stayed by agreement of the parties pending the outcome of the Illinois action. Pending the resolution of this litigation, the Life Companies have not produced their in-force policy records in connection with the Multi-State Exam. Conclusion. The results of the aforementioned legislative actions, Treasurers’ Audit, Multi-State Exam and the related litigation cannot currently be predicted. The Life Companies continue to maintain that states lack the legal authority to establish new requirements that would effectively change the terms of existing life insurance contracts with regard to basic claims handling obligations and processes. If state officials are able to impose such new requirements retroactively upon the Life Companies’ existing life insurance policies, it will fundamentally alter the nature and timing of the Life Companies’ responsibilities under such policies by essentially eliminating contractual terms that condition claim settlement and payment on the receipt of a claim, including “due proof of death” of an insured. The outcomes of the various initiatives and related litigation could result in changes in the law that could have the effect of altering the terms of the Life Companies’ existing life insurance contracts by imposing new requirements that have a significant impact on, including acceleration of, the Life Companies’ payment and/or escheatment of policy benefits, and materially increase claims handling costs. Any attempt to predict the ultimate outcomes (including any estimate of the resulting effect on claim liabilities and reserves for future policy benefits) of these efforts to change the law would entail predicting on a state-by-state-basis numerous uncertainties including, but not limited to:
• | How many states eventually enact laws or interpret existing laws to require the use of a Death Master File or may exact such usage through regulation, examinations or audits;
• | The matching criteria to be used in comparing records of the Life Companies against a Death Master File;
• | The universe of policies affected;
• | Whether and to what extent any such laws would be applied retroactively; and
• | The results of unclaimed property audits, examinations and other actions by state insurance regulators and litigation, including challenges to the constitutionality of laws purporting to have retroactive application.
Due to the complexity and multi-jurisdictional nature of this issue, as well as the indeterminate number of potential outcomes and their uncertain effects on the Life Companies’ business, Kemper cannot reasonably estimate the amount of loss that it would recognize if the Life Companies were subjected to requirements of the types described in this Note on a retroactive basis.

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