Bankers Life and Casualty
Encyclopedia
Established in 1879 in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Bankers Life and Casualty Company focuses on the insurance needs of the retirement market. The nationwide company, a subsidiary of CNO Financial Group, Inc. (formerly Conseco), offers a broad portfolio of life and health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...

 retirement products designed especially for seniors.

Bankers has more than 1.3 million policyholders and offers a comprehensive portfolio of insurance products including long-term care
Long-term care
Long-term care is a variety of services which help meet both the medical and non-medical need of people with a chronic illness or disability who cannot care for themselves for long periods of time....

 and life insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...

, annuities
Annuity (US financial products)
In the United States an annuity contract is created when an insured party, usually an individual, pays a life insurance company a single premium that will later be distributed back to the insured party over time...

, and Medicare
Medicare (United States)
Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over; to those who are under 65 and are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability; or to those who meet other...

 products including supplement plans, Medicare Advantage Plans and Medicare Part D
Medicare Part D
Medicare Part D is a federal program to subsidize the costs of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries in the United States. It was enacted as part of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 and went into effect on January 1, 2006.- Eligibility and...

 prescription drug
Prescription drug
A prescription medication is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a medical prescription before it can be obtained. The term is used to distinguish it from over-the-counter drugs which can be obtained without a prescription...

 coverage.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Bankers also offers vision and dental plans through a partnership with Humana
Humana
Humana Inc. , founded in 1961 in Louisville, Kentucky, is a Fortune 100 company that markets and administers health insurance. With a customer base of over 11.5 million in the United States, the company is the largest Fortune 100 company headquartered in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and has a...

.

The company sells its products through a network of over 5,000 insurance agents based in over 200 nationwide branch offices.

In business since 1879, the company was developed and owned by Chicago insurance man John D. MacArthur
John D. MacArthur
John Donald MacArthur was an American businessman and philanthropist who established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, benefactor in the MacArthur Fellowships.-Early life:...

 since 1935. At the time of his death in 1978, control of the company passed to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a major charitable institution in the U.S. The foundation later sold Bankers Life and Casualty Company.

Today, Bankers is a subsidiary of CNO Financial Group, Inc., a holding company for a group of insurance companies operating throughout the United States.

As of 2010, Bankers has $13 billion in assets under management
Assets under management
Assets under management is a financial term used denote the market value of funds being managed by a financial instutition on behalf of its clients, investors, depositors, etc. This metric is a sign of size and success against competition...

. In 2010, Bankers processed more than seven million claims and paid out more than $1.1 billion in policy benefits.

The company has faced several lawsuits in which they were accused of denying claims to seniors and both Conseco and Bankers have been noted as having a particularly high amount of complaints among long-term care clients: in 2005, Conseco had one complaint for every 383 such policyholders, whereas, according to 2005 statistics, Genworth Financial, the largest long-term-care insurer received one complaint for every 12,434 policies.

Bankers was named one of the top 10 long-term care insurers in 2009 by LIMRA.

Research Studies

Bankers Life and Casualty Company Center for a Secure Retirement conducts studies and consumer awareness campaigns to provide insight and practical advice for how everyday Americans can achieve financial security during retirement.

U.S. News and World Report referenced a recent study conducted by Bankers Life and Casualty in an article titled "A Dozen Big Changes in Perceptions About Retirement." The Bankers study, titled "Middle-Income Boomers, Financial Security and the New Retirement," found that nearly 3 of every 4 middle-income Baby Boomers are rethinking their retirement date, and of these, 79 are delaying their retirement by an average of five years.

Charity Funding

Bankers is a national sponsor of the Alzheimer's Association
Alzheimer's Association
The Alzheimer's Association, incorporated on April 10, 1980 as the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association, Inc., is a non-profit American voluntary health organization which focuses on care, support and research for Alzheimer's disease....

. Since 2003, the company has organized Forget Me Not Days, its annual nationwide fundraising campaign to collect donations for the Alzheimer's Association
Alzheimer's Association
The Alzheimer's Association, incorporated on April 10, 1980 as the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association, Inc., is a non-profit American voluntary health organization which focuses on care, support and research for Alzheimer's disease....

 and raise public awareness of the disease.

In 2011, Bankers contributed $386,000 to support the care, support and research efforts of the Alzheimer's Association
Alzheimer's Association
The Alzheimer's Association, incorporated on April 10, 1980 as the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association, Inc., is a non-profit American voluntary health organization which focuses on care, support and research for Alzheimer's disease....

 through the fundraiser and a separate corporate donation, up from $338,000 in 2010. Since 2003, Bankers has supported the Association with more than $2.4 million for care, education and research programs.

Bankers also supports Meals on Wheels Chicago. In 2010, the company made a $20,000 donation to aid Meals on Wheels
Meals on Wheels
Meals on Wheels are programs that deliver meals to individuals at home who are unable to purchase or prepare their own meals. The name is often used generically to refer to home-delivered meals programs, not all of which are actually named "Meals on Wheels"...

Chicago. Since 2004, Bankers has transferred $200,000 to Meals on Wheels Chicago for programs, services and fundraising initiatives.

Scam

Multiple accusations from former employees exist stating that Bankers Life and Casualty is a scam that preys on anyone who has an online resume. They constantly alter their Wikipedia page to seem fully legitimate to outsiders. To maintain there reputation this section will be removed by them shortly.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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