WMBFNews.com | Myrtle Beach/Florence, SC | News, Weather, SportsNCDOT helps employees who lost life insurance

NCDOT helps employees who lost life insurance

From the North Carolina Department of Transportation

RALEIGH, NC – The NC Department of Transportation is trying to help several hundred employees with their life insurance needs, after discovering that an employee committee canceled their polices years ago.

In a letter addressed to employees of the week, NCDOT admitted that polices were canceled on Dec. 31, 2001. Although employees were never notified, many of them continued to pay premiums through payroll deduction.

The department told 93 employees that it would stop payroll deductions and refund the amounts they had paid in premiums. Another 641 employees had their policies canceled at the same time, but they had not been paying premiums. 

NCDOT notified the employees that it has hired an insurance advisor to help explain their options for life insurance. The department told the employees that they have the option of receiving the cash surrender value of their policies, as of the date it was canceled, or receiving a reduced paid-up life insurance policy.

"We regret that this lapse in coverage occurred, and we'll do all that we can to help the affected employees," said Secretary of Transportation Gene Conti, who learned of the problem after he came into office last year and directed an investigation. "We are taking steps to ensure that it does not happen again."

NCDOT continues to offer life insurance to employees through other carriers. Advisors Financial Group, a Raleigh brokerage firm, currently has a contract to sell life insurance to NCDOT employees.  NCDOT has contracted separately with Advisors Financial to provide independent advice to affected employees on their specific situations.