Writing for 100 Reporters, reporter Lucy Komisar followed her groundbreaking FIJ-funded story about high-risk Wall Street life-insurance practices with a second piece that showed a wide range of risky practices that benefit insurance executives and shareholders while putting policyholders and pensions in financial danger. The companies involved include some of the largest insurance firms in the country, who are diverting insurance liabilities into offshore entities where oversight is scant, Komisar found. Together, these companies account for roughly one in six life insurance policies and annuities in the United States. Komisar exposed how little government oversight exists to try to protect policyholders, even though economists and labor unions have warned that they threaten retirement funds.
Grantee reveals how the insurance industry uses complex financing schemes to maximize profits, risking pensions and retirement funds
