AARP and New York Life Change Insurance Contracting Rules to Recognize Affirmed Transpeople |
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Lake Perriguey notes:
AARP and New York Life Change Insurance Contracting Rules to Recognize Affirmed Transpeople
Veronica West, an affirmed woman near Portland, Oregon, sought document conformity with her
life insurance policy to ensure that her beneficiaries would have no issues in the event of her death.
She was concerned that her life insurance carrier, New York Life, which administered her plan
acquired the American Association of Retired Persons, might deny a pay out to her beneficiaries if
her life insurance policy was issued to a “male” and her legal and physical self was identified as
“female” at her death.
New York Life, and most other life insurance companies, have historically insisted on “birth
sex/gender” when writing life insurance policies, ignoring the changed legal reality of transpeople.
Unlike most businesses, life insurance companies in most states are permitted to discriminate
based on the sex/gender of the policyholder because of the life expectancy differences between
men and women according to actuarial data. There is no comprehensive data on the life
expectancy of transpeople.
Lake James Perriguey, Ms. West’s Portland lawyer, worked to convince New York Life to change
the company rules for writing insurance policies for transpersons.
Now, New York Life will write life insurance policies based on the applicants legal gender, not the
applicant’s birth gender.
For more information, contact Lake James Perriguey, 503.227.1928 or lake@law-works.com