Insurance...*

When you take out a life insurance policy, you pay premiums in the expectation that when you die your spouse or your children will receive the benefit. But audits of the nation's leading insurance companies have uncovered a systematic, industry-wide practice of not paying significant numbers of beneficiaries.

The beneficiary never comes forward because he or she doesn't know the policy exists.

But the companies know, says Kevin McCarty, the insurance commissioner of Florida, who led the national task force investigating the industry.

The companies don't pay, unless a beneficiary makes a claim.  Companies have actual knowledge in their files that people have died, yet they have neglected to initiate an investigation and pay the claim.

In a little-known series of settlements, 25 of the nation's biggest life insurance companies have agreed to pay more than $7.5 billion in back-death benefits. However, about 35 insurance companies have not settled and remain under investigation for not paying when the beneficiary is unaware there was a policy, something that is not at all uncommon.

You can't scam the Insurance companies, but the Insurance companies may be able to.     Just a thought.