Monday, May 5, 2014

No. 47: Legal Expenses Incurred in 2013 by Ten Life Insurance Companies

In post No. 31 published February 17, 2014, I identified the law firms to which Phoenix Life Insurance Company paid large amounts in 2012. I was interested in Phoenix because of the huge amount of litigation in which the company has been involved relating to stranger-originated life insurance. In this follow-up, I show similar data for 2013 for ten large companies including Phoenix.

Schedule J
Legal expenses incurred by life insurance companies licensed to do business in New York are disclosed in detail in Schedule J of the New York Supplement to the statutory annual statement companies file with the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS). Schedule J for many years was part of the uniform annual statement blank the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) promulgated each year. As discussed in my post No. 38, the NAIC eliminated the schedule from the blank several years ago. What is now DFS, however, retained the schedule as part of the New York Supplement to the NAIC blank.

Legal Expenses
By way of DFS's public portal, I obtained easy access to the Schedule Js for 2013 filed March 1, 2014. For ten large life insurance companies, I show here the name of each law firm or other payee that received at least $1 million from the company in 2013. For each insurance company, I list payees in descending order of amount received, and I also show the amount of Schedule J legal expenses paid to all others combined.

AXA Equitable Life Ins Co
Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy
6,495,265
DeBevoise & Plimpton
3,334,234
Mayer Brown
1,333,871
Epstein Becker & Green
1,027,128
Others
9,610,061
 
Guardian Life Ins Co of America 
Ogletree Deakins
1,285,530
McGuire Woods
1,069,017
Others
10,493,916
 
Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins Co 
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
28,549,933
EPIQ Discovery Solutions
3,875,241
Perkins Coie
3,089,986
Sidley Austin
2,912,920
Bingham McCutchen
2,682,930
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
2,390,738
Axiom Global
1,160,740
Alix Partners
1,003,654
Others
10,149,039
 
Metropolitan Life Ins Co 
Steptoe & Johnson
14,764,711
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
7,217,245
CMS Cameron McKenna
2,979,988
Sidley Austin
2,837,920
Mayer Brown
2,705,394
Willkie Farr & Gallagher
2,388,804
DeBevoise & Plimpton
2,210,099
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan
2,043,426
Patton Boggs
2,041,108
Wachtel Lipton Rosen & Katz
2,000,000
Morgan Lewis & Bockius
1,836,011
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings
1,608,129
Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman
1,528,897
Barger & Wolen
1,493,375
Baker & McKenzie
1,492,722
Shutts & Bowen
1,423,614
Proskauer Rose
1,390,071
Others
27,730,483
 
New York Life Ins Co 
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan
1,579,274
Morgan Lewis & Bockius
1,534,219
Others
8,293,643
 
Northwestern Mutual Life Ins Co 
Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott
3,271,007
Others
5,764,990
 
Phoenix Life Ins Co 
Edison McDowell & Hetherington
9,586,508
Carlton Fields Jorden Burt
6,982,328
Day Pitney
2,846,559
DeBevoise & Plimpton
1,425,158
Others
6,785,926
 
Principal Life Ins Co 
Sidley Austin
4,509,066
Analysis Group
1,169,345
Maynard Cooper & Gale
1,068,905
Morgan Lewis & Bockius
1,037,412
Others
7,500,973
 
Prudential Ins Co of America 
Seyfarth Shaw
6,514,446
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison
5,530,234
DeBevoise & Plimpton
5,308,645
Sullivan & Cronwell
2,750,685
Goodwin Procter
2,726,099
O'Melveny & Myers
2,498,013
D'Arcambal Ousley & Cuyler Burk NJ
2,254,923
Alston & Bird
2,118,199
Clifford Chance
1,915,406
Sidley Austin
1,702,010
Nukk-Freeman & Cerra
1,657,198
Wilmer Hale
1,412,553
Mayer Brown
1,308,861
Meserve Mumper & Hughes
1,269,547
Drinker Biddle & Reath
1,100,966
McCarter & English
1,027,485
Others
22,084,429
 
Teachers Ins & Annuity Assn of America 
O'Melveny & Myers
4,300,060
DeBevoise & Plimpton
4,020,675
Others
5,879,238

General Observations
It would be interesting to see similar information for companies that are not licensed to do business in New York. That would have been possible if the NAIC had not removed Schedule J from the uniform annual statement blank.
 
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