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Lawsuit Seeks To Block Florida’s New Life Insurance Law

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Four insurance companies are asking a Leon County circuit judge to block a new law forcing them to hunt down life insurance beneficiaries.

They are challenging a retroactive provision that requires them to comb the federal Death Master File for the names of customers with policies dating back to 1992.

The search would be long and expensive and end up helping a relatively few people, said attorney Barry Richard. “It’s a draconian imposition, it costs a huge amount of money and it probably is a relatively small number,” said Richard. “It’s like searching for a needle in a haystack.”

The suit names Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and the Department of Financial Services. An Atwater spokeswoman calls the suit “outrageous.”

Atwater’s advocacy for the legislation was featured on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”