Association offers advice on buying insurance

A national association of state insurance regulators is helping to arm service members and their families with information for making wise decisions about insurance needs, and to make it easier to file complaints against agents and companies.

Buying the right kind of insurance is challenging enough under the best of circumstances, but military life brings additional uncertainties and circumstances, according to officials with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

The “Insurance Issues for Military Personnel” section on the association’s Web site helps troops assess their needs for different types of insurance.

Their new online brochure “Life Insurance for Military Personnel,” lists questions to consider when thinking about shopping for life insurance and offers information about consumer rights, along with a list of phone numbers for insurance regulators in every U.S. state and territory. It also links to the Pentagon’s list of actions taken by installation commanders against life insurance companies.

The brochure lists “red flags” such as:

• Non-military or former military personnel acting as investment or financial advisors in a group or classroom setting.

• Agents selling without a valid license from a state insurance department.

• Agents selling on base without authorization.

For decades, concerns have been raised about some companies taking advantage of troops by selling them expensive life insurance products they don’t need.

Some state regulators have taken actions, such as Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, who in January ordered American Amicable Life Insurance Company of Texas to refund $1.3 million in life insurance premiums to soldiers who were solicited and sold term life insurance policies while they were in a training brigade at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2002.

NAIC developed the resources for military families in conjunction with state insurance departments, the Pentagon, the Department of Labor, and the Better Business Bureau.