A Fallen Hero: How an Insurance Company Profited
Katie Couric Reports on One Family's Experience with Dead Soldier Benefits and a Giant Insurance Firm
By Katie Couric
(CBS) In nearly a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, 5,620 Americans have died. Survivors of these fallen heroes are entitled to a life-insurance payment and the government uses a private company to handle it. What happened to the mother of 24-year-old Ryan Baumann of Great Mills, Maryland when she tried to collect serves as a lesson to every military family.
According to a Bloomberg Markets Magazine investigation, insurance companies have been profiting off of the death-benefits of fallen heroes.
"Ryan was a neat kid," said Cindy Lohman - Ryan's mother. "He really wanted to join the Army after 9/11 because he saw that, you know, there were things he could do."
CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric reports Sgt. Ryan Baumann was as proud of his mission in Afghanistan as his mother is of him. A soldier with the 101st Airborne, he was stationed in eastern Afghanistan - protecting villagers from the Taliban and providing critical services - like repairing pumps supplying water.
"One of the things that he said to me," Lohman said, "he said 'if anything happens to me, just let the world know we're making a difference over here.'"
But on August 1, 2008, Ryan was riding in a Humvee when he spotted an improvised explosive device, an IED.
"He told his driver, 'go left,' and that placed the IED directly under him," Lohman said.
Baumann was killed instantly. The driver, gunner and medic with him all survived.
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How an Insurance Company Profited
VCS in the News: Fallen Soldiers' Families Denied Cash as Insurance Companies Profit
Written by David Evans
Wednesday, 28 July 2010 09:52
Top VA Officials Unaware of Scam; VCS Blasts "Secret Profits" for Prudential and MetLife
July 28, 2010 (Bloomberg News) - The package arrived at Cindy Lohman’s home in Great Mills, Maryland, just two weeks after she learned that her son, Ryan, a 24-year-old Army sergeant, had been killed by a bomb in Afghanistan. It was a thick, 9-inch-by- 12-inch envelope from Prudential Financial Inc., which handles life insurance for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Inside was a letter from Prudential about Ryan’s $400,000 policy. And there was something else, which looked like a checkbook. The letter told Lohman that the full amount of her payout would be placed in a convenient interest-bearing account, allowing her time to decide how to use the benefit.
“You can hold the money in the account for safekeeping for as long as you like,” the letter said. In tiny print, in a disclaimer that Lohman says she didn’t notice, Prudential disclosed that what it called its Alliance Account was not guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its September issue. Lohman, 52, left the money untouched for six months after her son’s August 2008 death.
“It’s like you’re paying me off because my child was killed,” she says. “It was a consolation prize that I didn’t want.”
*** Stephen Wurtz, deputy assistant director for insurance at the VA, who has overseen the insurance program for 25 years, has been kept in the dark by Prudential. ***
*** “It’s shameful that an insurance company is stealing money from the families of our fallen servicemen,” says Paul Sullivan, who served in the 1991 Gulf War as an Army cavalry scout and is now executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington. “I’m outraged.” ***
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Fallen Soldiers Families Denied Cash
