🏥 Transamerica Life Insurance Cost-of-Insurance / Monthly Deduction Rate Settlement

Transamerica allegedly breached policy contracts by improperly raising cost-of-Insurance rates or monthly deduction rate schedules on certain universal life insurance policies.

Owners of qualifying Transamerica universal life insurance policies subject to the challenged COI/MDR rate increases (class membership is notice-based — see the settlement Notice for exact policy list and dates).

minimum $200 per Settlement Class Member, drawn from a $57,000,000 non-reversionary fund

None

The dispute traces to cost-of-insurance and monthly-deduction-rate increase letters that Transamerica mailed to affected universal life policyholders during 2022 and 2023; plaintiffs argue those increases broke the terms of their policy contracts. It is proceeding as Estate of Handorf, et al. v. Transamerica Life Insurance Company in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. The settlement creates a $57 million cash fund, none of which reverts to Transamerica, and beyond the cash payouts the company has agreed to hold off on further COI/MDR increases for five years (barring a regulatory mandate) and not to use misrepresentation or lack-of-insurable-interest claims as grounds to cancel policies or deny claims. Transamerica denies any wrongdoing, and a judge has not yet ruled on final approval.