Life insurance class actions I have been following include the multi-district litigation (MDL) against Prudential Life Insurance Company of America pending in federal district court in Massachusetts.  This case involves the payment of life insurance benefits under servicemembers’ and veterans’ group life insurance programs that are operated by Prudential and subsidized by the federal government. 

Any insurer that issues payments by making “checkbooks” available to insureds should pay careful attention to a new trend of class actions.  I’ve posted a couple of times on the growing trend of class actions against life insurance companies involving the use of “checkbooks” to pay policy proceeds to beneficiaries (see my posts from May

A recent posting on Robert Berg’s Class Action Blog suggests that life insurance companies are “secretly profiting” by providing beneficiaries with a checkbook from which they can draw on the proceeds over time, instead of paying a lump sum.  Of course, unless there is some unusual provision in the life insurance policy to the contrary, the beneficiary