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Allstate Employees sue Allstate Corporation and their 401k plans, alleging breach of fiduciary duties. The suit is based on the alleged poor performance of investment selections and expenses incurred. The case involves investments in six of the Focus Funds. The suit includes allegations against the plan fiduciary duties to diversify the investments of the plan to minimize the risk of large losses. Allstate representatives claim that plan fiduciaries must engage with a balancing of risks and returns, which is a function of portfolio management.

The plaintiffs allege that the Northern Trust Funds “consistently underperform” against the Morgan Stanley funds, which has drastically understated the value of company retirement savings plans. Allstate currently is defending the lawsuit, calming that the plaintiffs failed to exhaust administrative remedies before seeking resolution through litigation. Allstate raises questions about whether their 401k committee and their 401k administrative committee acted as fiduciaries concerning the conduct of which the plaintiffs complain. The case also revolves in a central fashion around the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which the plaintiffs believe should have mandated Allstate to choose wiser and more lucrative investment options. Allstate, by contrast, believes that this case is a non-starter and is a matter of not losses, but complaints that there could have been more financial gain.

Mehr Fairbanks Trial Lawyers represent claimants in ERISA plans.

On June 8, 2021, Mehr Fairbanks Trial Lawyers obtained a judgment for $190,000 against Hartford Life and Accident Company in federal court. Hartford wrongfully denied life insurance benefits to a widow after her husband died of cancer, and accused them of making misrepresentations on the insurance application. The court disagreed and ordered Hartford to pay the full $190,000 face value of the life insurance policy.

Mehr Fairbanks Trial Lawyers has a strong record of closing life insurance cases and earning positive judgments for you or your family. If you or someone you know has had a life insurance claim denied, contact Mehr Fairbanks Trial Lawyers today.

Some car accidents are more complicated than others. Were you injured in a car wreck involving multiple vehicles? How do you determine who is at fault? Kentucky applies “pure comparative fault” when determining who is responsible for causing a collision. This means it is possible more than one person could be responsible for compensating you for your injuries. This also means that even if you are partially at fault yourself, you can still recover for your injuries, but only to the extent of the percentage liability of the other drivers.

For example, assume a car pulls out in front of you and you collide with it. Behind you, another driver is not paying attention and crashes into the back of your car. Each driver will be responsible for his or her percentage share of liability for your injuries, whether it is determined to be 50/50, 70/30, 90/10, or some other amount. A similar scenario could apply in a multi-party pile up, or a chain reaction rear-end collision.

What does this mean for you?

Q: My life insurance policy was canceled because I missed a premium. What do I do?

A: How long has it been since your premium was missed? If it was less than 30 days, all life insurance policies should have a clause that says that you can make that payment during a grace period of no less than 30 days. If it has been more than 30 days, then you can apply for reinstatement of the life insurance policy. The policy can normally be reinstated up to three years after you miss your payment. You have to file an application, produce evidence of “insured ability satisfactory to the insurer” and pay all of the back due premiums along with interest.

It is important that you act quickly if you discover your policy has lapsed and that you find out from the insurance company what your options are. You may need counsel to assist you and there may be other grounds for reinstating the policy or forcing them to reinstate it without filing the reinstatement application. Sometimes insurance companies will do new underwriting on a person and find that they are not satisfactory because their health has declined. In that instance, it might be worth speaking to a life insurance lawyer.

Accidental Death and Dismemberment (also referred to as AD&D or ADD) insurance is a type of life insurance that may provide additional coverage to you and your family if a death is the result of an accident. This means your beneficiaries may be able to recover life insurance proceeds plus additional accidental death proceeds.

While this insurance can be an added benefit, it also has its own exclusions and limitations. Whether a death is an accident or not may sound like a simple enough concept, but insurance companies may still attempt to deny a claim for a variety of reasons such as suicide, intentionally self-inflicted injury, war, inhalation of poisonous gases, commission of a criminal act, use of alcohol or drugs, overdose, or death caused by a disease or sickness. Consider the following: an individual is involved in a motor vehicle accident and tragically dies. Almost universally, everyone would agree the death is the result of an accident, but what if the driver had taken medication that day? What if the driver was speeding? What if the driver had a heart condition at the time of the accident? Another example: someone has an adverse reaction to a medication and unexpectedly passes away. This also would vastly be considered an accident, but what if the person was prescribed too high of a dose? What if the medication reacted with another substance? What if the person had a preexisting medical condition?

Issues like these can make what seems like a straightforward question (accident or not?) more complex. If you have had a claim for life insurance or accidental death insurance denied, contact us for a case evaluation. Many people get their AD&D policies as an employee benefit through their employer. As a result, your insurance claim may be covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Our team of attorneys has decades of combined experience counseling clients and getting results. We have handled accidental death insurance lawsuits for beneficiaries in state and federal court.

results-of-carnegie-fundraiser

Mehr Fairbanks Trial Lawyers teamed up with The Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning to raise money for their tutoring services. You can read more about the fundraising project here.

Mehr Fairbanks Trial Lawyers promised to match up to $10,000 of any contribution made to the fundraiser. Thanks to several thoughtful donors, MFPTL was able to donate the full $10,000 amount. Pictured below are members of the MFPTL staff and members of The Carnegie Center staff exchanging the $10,000 check, while staying socially distanced. Combined with MFPTL’s contribution, the fundraising campaign raised a total of $26,270 for The Carnegie Center’s tutoring program.

At Mehr Fairbanks Trial Lawyers, we strive to help the community in any way that we can, whether that’s by settling cases for our clients or donating to a fundraiser that is important to our team to help students in our area. We are dedicating to helping you!

Attorney Bartley Hagerman recently settled a premises liability case for $100,000. Our client slipped and fell on ice in a parking lot after getting out of her car and sustained bodily injuries. The lawsuit was settled with the property owner and the snow and ice removal company.

If you or someone you know suffered bodily injuries following a similar incident, click here and begin speaking with one of our attorneys. Our attorneys have years of experience helping our clients recover money that they are entitled to following personal injury and premises liability cases.

Call us today!

mehr-set-to-give-presentation

Austin Mehr will be presenting on the topic of Insurance Bad Faith Litigation on Friday, July 17, 2020 beginning at 1:00 p.m. EST. Austin will be presenting along with attorneys Buddy Wheatley and Claire Parsons. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the session will be held via Zoom. Mehr was invited to present in this CLE session earlier in the year and looks forward to participating and sharing information on bad faith.

The CLE has been approved in three states (Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana) for three hours, including one ethics hour.

Austin is looking forward to seeing all of the virtual attendees!

Did you know that some state governments look at the reading levels of 3rd graders to plan prison capacities in the future?

By teaming up with The Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning, we can help close the achievement gap that exists with children in our community. It starts with learning to read well.

Carnegie helps struggling children learn to read better. They have two reading specialists on staff, both educators, that assist with children in our community who fall behind in learning to read. The Carnegie after school tutoring program offers tutoring sessions to disadvantaged students with a one-time fee of $5 to enroll in the programs. Without resources available to help them read, they will fall behind in school, and their life opportunities will change forever.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to many events being postponed or canceled all around the world. In many cases, this is considered bad news for all involved. Workplaces deemed nonessential have been closed for nearly two months waiting on this period of life to pass. Fortunately, our office’s mission is still to help our clients and to be available as much as possible during this time.

To our current clients and to those seeking our services for short-term and long-term disability claims and appeals, it is important to note that we are still here to help you every step of the way. Because of the National Emergency we are all enduring, current deadlines to file claims and to submit appeal letters following the denial of a claim under ERISA have been tolled until the pandemic is resolved. According to the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), Department of Labor:

All group health plans, disability and other employee welfare benefit plans, and employee benefit plans subject to ERISA or the Code must disregard the period from March 1, 2020 until sixty (60) days after the announced end of the National Emergency or such date announced by the Agencies in a future notification (the “Outbreak Period”) for all plan participants, beneficiaries, qualified beneficiaries, or claimants wherever located in determining the…time for making a claim for benefits or appealing the denial of a claim for benefits.

This means that if your appeal deadline falls within the time frame listed, you have an additional sixty days to file initial claims and to submit appeal letters following the denial of a claim from the date of the lifting of the National Emergency.

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