Don't forget to notify your insurer when you die

We repeatedly point out on this blog that the enemies of US workers are first and foremost our own capitalist class.  Workers know this in a way as we all hate bankers, insurance companies and the drug companies that rip us all off.

The "United We Stand" and "One Nation Indivisible" propaganda is their strategy aimed at linking our interests to theirs internationally, it is the Team Concept on a global scale aimed at driving a wedge between workers of different countries.

The capitalist class terrorizes us on the job and maintains a system of coercion and instability, a state of affairs where we can never feel secure. A permanent army of the unemployed is a good example of this as a threat to those working to keep their mouths shut and their noses to the grindstone. They plunder the economy diverting billions of dollars into the pockets of the investors and other wasters in the corporate world through outright fraud, money that would solve most of our problems here and throughout the world.

Look at the Insurance industry.  John Hancock Financial Services, a major US insurer has been accused by the state of California of  "withholding benefits from widows and other beneficiaries by allegedly failing to determine if its customers were dead" the Wall Street Journal reports. 

Huh! How do they do that?

Well, it's simple.  If a customer dies and doesn't notify the insurance company (mental telepathy would work) then the insurance company keeps collecting premiums.  Now we know dead people can't send a check off to an insurance company every month so how they continue to receive premium payments is interesting.  The Wall Street Journal gives an example of a John Hancock policy that was issued on 1963 to a person that died in 1999.  For seven years after the death, the company continued to collect premium payments by depleting the policy's cash reserves until it was cancelled". In this instance, the deceased's beneficiaries have still not been paid, 11 years after the death. I am assuming that if a policy is not cancelled, the insurance company simply depletes the whole thing.

This is a "widespread practice" says John Chiang, California's State Controller. There is actually a law on the books that "requires" businesses to contact the controller after there has been no contact from the customer for three years, or if the accounts have been abandoned. This might lead one to think that the subject may have moved on you would think.  But Hancock have "routinely failed" to follow these procedures.

Hancock says that it is "outraged by the unsubstantiated allegations and characterizations" from the state of California.  Hancock speaks as a person because a corporation has rights as a person; that way the individuals doing the stealing can avoid responsibility for their crimes. But, Hancock has feelings too and says it will take a more "proactive approach to determine whether a customer has died"--- stop laughing for a minute and finish this-----Hancock continues, "because it sees that as the right thing to do. Hancock, although innocent of any wrongdoing, will "move from a long held process required by law where the company waits for notice and proof of death to be provided before taking any action to the process of actively searching public records to see if someone has died."
Damn, Hancock is a saint and a true American wanting to obey the law like that.  It's interesting though the resources abound and investigators swarm when you call on an insurance company for a payout.

This fraud goes on every minute of every day and to the tune of trillions of dollars. This example is merely thee tip of the iceberg.  It would be easier to find Osama Bin Laden that root out these crooks though. They love to talk about not violating "American law".  They use the same argument for their unmanned drone bombings in Pakistan.  the Pakistani's oppose the US bombing their country and killing civilians but the US says its not illegal according to US law.

Laws are written by individuals or groups of individuals that represent class interests though.  The justice system, the law, the police, all of this and the law it upholds is part of an apparatus that defends the rights of the John Hancocks of this world.  The were no shortage of regulators for the financial industry or the deepwater drilling industry that led to the BP catastrophe; they simply were not about to place human safety and environmental protection above profits.

So if you have life insurance remember to notify the insurance company when you die.