I have yet to encounter an insurance company that wasn’t sleazy. Northwestern Mutual, with whom I have recently had the displeasure to deal, has reaffirmed this view.
The story is pretty simple. My mother recently died, leaving a $65,000 insurance policy to my son, who is 15. At first, all seemed well - I called NM, they noted that the beneficiary is a minor, and promised to send me the paperwork needed for us to put the funds into an account that he can access at 18. My husband talked to our financial advisor, who set up an account to receive the money and hold it for my son until he is of age.
Hubby dutifully filled out the NM forms, including giving the account information for the newly established account, and sent the forms back to NM.
Do you think Northwestern Mutual then sent the funds to my son’s account? No, of course not!
Instead, they told us that we had to go to a US state court and get a legal ruling proving that my husband and I are the guardians of our son. (Mind you, he’s the biological son of us both, both our names are listed on his birth certificate, he resides in the same house with both of us, we pay all his bills, etc. etc. - all things we could submit paperwork to prove, if necessary.)
Pressed to explain why we had to find a court to declare us, the parents he has spent his entire life with, as his actual guardians, NM insisted that “it’s the law” but despite repeated requests (and I promise you, we were nice about it), they never were able to find this mystery law.
Setting aside the time and effort associated with going to court for this, we don’t live in the US (we are US citizens, but residents of Indonesia), and have no standing in any US state court. However, NM will not accept a notarized affidavit from our US embassy stating that we are our son’s legal guardians. According to NM, there is no alternative to papers from a state court in the US.
NM went so far as to insinuate, in writing, that they have checked Indonesia’s laws and that the same rules would apply. (Sure you did, folks. I’m sure you have several staff members fluent in Indonesian and capable of doing legal research on Indonesian laws.)
Meanwhile, our financial advisor expressed amazement. He has set up similar accounts for his own children twice, and in neither case was he asked to provide guardianship paperwork.
Of course, there is an easy solution to this problem: NM will keep the money for our son until he turns 18, or so they say. They just will not let us set up an account for him that is in the same place as the rest of our money.
Fine, whatever. I’d like to fight them on this, but it’s just not worth it. They know that, of course, which is why they are perfectly content to stonewall us with regard to the law they insist exists but cannot provide to us.
So, admitting defeat, last night my husband called to ask them about how to fill out the forms a second time, but this time directing NM to keep the money for my son. (Apparently, something on the form about how to do this was unclear, and he wanted to know which box to check.)
Guess what? Now that the money will stay with NM, all obstacles have miraculously vanished. We don’t even need to re-send the forms. They were willing to accept a verbal direction over the phone from my husband, despite the fact that the only written forms they have from him explicitly state something different than what we are now asking them to do.
Nice going, NM! I sure believe that you guys are trustworthy now. It’s about 2 years and 6 months until my son turns 18. We’ll have that money out of your hands immediately, as fast as we can get the paperwork filled out and overcome whatever stupid obstacles you figure out to put in our son’s way then.
I know this isn’t much of a story, but I feel better having added just one little contribution to the internet explaining what scum insurance companies are. Scum. Assholes. Villains. Liars. Eeeevvvviiilllll.