{"id":7338,"date":"2012-04-27T14:16:14","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T19:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=7338"},"modified":"2012-04-27T14:16:24","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T19:16:24","slug":"floridas-cfo-reaches-for-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2012\/04\/floridas-cfo-reaches-for-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s CFO <BR> Reaches For Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_3943\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3943\" style=\"width: 201px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Florida-CFO-Jeff-Atwater.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3943\" title=\"Florida CFO Jeff Atwater\" src=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Florida-CFO-Jeff-Atwater.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"251\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3943\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Florida CFO Jeff Atwater<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Dear Editor,<\/p>\n<p>As a public official, I have a responsibility to make certain that companies doing business in our state are playing by the rules and honoring the contractual obligations they have made with their customers. If a business provides a service to our fellow Floridians, it should be expected to operate by the highest ethical standards and be held accountable.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Since I have been in office, we have reached settlement agreements with three insurance companies: Prudential, John Hancock and Metropolitan Life (MetLife). These settlements have halted the egregious practice of using the U.S. Social Security Administration&#8217;s Death Master File to discontinue recipients&#8217; annuity payments, but not using the same file to determine that benefits are owed after the deaths of insured individuals.<\/p>\n<p>This week, we reached a $40 million multi-agency agreement with nine MetLife companies. This settlement with MetLife is another important step in correcting a long-standing practice by insurance companies that was not in the best interest of their customers. Through these agreements, Florida sends a strong message that we will always stand up for consumers. I&#8217;m eager to begin reuniting deserving Floridians with the dollars that they are rightfully owed and protecting others in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Consumers can access more information about the MetLife, Prudential or John Hancock settlement agreements at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myfloridacfo.com\/consumers\/\">www.myfloridacfo.com\/consumers\/<\/a>. To search for or claim property, visit my Bureau of Unclaimed Property&#8217;s website at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.FLTreasureHunt.org\">www.FLTreasureHunt.org<\/a>.<br \/>\nJeff Atwater<br \/>\nChief Financial Officer<br \/>\nState of Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Editor, As a public official, I have a responsibility to make certain that companies doing business in our state are playing by the rules and honoring the contractual obligations&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}