The Illinois state treasurer is urging legislators to override one of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s recent vetoes. Democrat Mike Frerichs says the override is needed to help people claim life insurance benefits.
The Democrat is pushing legislation that would force life insurance companies to open up more than a decade’s worth of records, looking for unclaimed policies. Frerichs claimed many of the policies in question were issued in poor neighborhoods on the hopes that beneficiaries would never collect.
“To sit down at their dining room table — and promise them that if something happened to them, they would be there to take care of their loved ones — and not honor that commitment, is wrong. That’s the wrong we are trying to right here today," he said.
Gov. Rauner vetoed the measure in part because it did not treat all companies the same. Insurers with electronic records would have to go back through 2000, while those with paper records only had to go back five years. Rauner also objected to a system in which third-party auditors collect finders fees for discovering unclaimed policies.
