MetLife Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc., the largest U.S. life insurers, are among the companies ordered by a New York regulator to use current Social Security Administration data to determine when death payments are due, Bloomberg reported.

“The department is concerned that life insurers may not be adopting and implementing reasonable standards for investigating claims and locating beneficiaries,” the New York insurance regulator said Tuesday.

The insurance department is requiring the 172 life insurers and fraternal benefit societies licensed in New York to make payments based on the data and report on the results for six months beginning in September, according to a statement Tuesday from the regulator. The department said it is working to make the requirement permanent.

Principal Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Des Moines-based Principal Financial Group Inc., is among the companies that have received a request for information from New York regulators, said Susan Houser, a company spokeswoman.

“We have an established and compliant claims process in place, including thorough review practices within our business lines,” Houser said in a email to the Business Record. “We subscribe to the Social Security Death Master File and review updated information regularly and compare the data against our client database. 

“We make every effort to ensure our business conduct satisfies state laws and our high ethical standards,” she said. “We will fully cooperate with any regulator request for information.” 

State regulators are intensifying a probe into unpaid benefits after Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said in May that insurers may be keeping at least $1 billion in unclaimed benefits owed to policyholders, beneficiaries or states. MetLife and Prudential are among nine firms subpoenaed in June as part of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s probe, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

Principal did not receive a subpoena on this matter from the New York attorney general, Houser said. 

Life insurers are generally required to pay claims after being notified of a policyholder’s death and receiving a valid death certificate. If insurance companies aren’t notified of a death, they usually are required to hold the funds until the insured would be about 100 years old, plus an additional three or five years, depending on the state, before turning the money over to the state as unclaimed property.

Insurers based in New York will need to report on policies they sell nationwide unless directed otherwise by another state regulator, according to the insurance department’s letter. Firms based outside New York need to provide information on policies issued in the state.

To read the press release from the New York State Insurance Department, click here.