Sun Life Financial, one of the largest disability insurance companies in the Nation, has acquired Assurant Inc.'s long term disability benefits division, as well as other group benefit divisions, for $975 million. The deal includes the purchase of Disability RMS, a subsidiary that specializes in managing disability claims and consulting services for life and long term disability plans. According to Sun Life's executives, with the purchase of Assurant, they become the sixth largest group benefit business in the U.S.
Sun Life, a Canadian Company, has strong ties to New England. Its U.S. headquarters are located in Wellesley, Massachusetts and it operates offices in Windsor, Connecticut and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. According to media reports, most of the operations related to Assurant's disability insurance policies will be conducted out of Portland, Maine. Assurant's main offices used to be located in Kansas City, Missouri.
It is not clear at this point what changes, if any, will be implemented in the claims process currently used in Assurant long term disability policies. Nonetheless, our law office is familiar with the process used by both insurance companies to decide claims and is ready to provide aggressive legal representation to policy holders of either insurer.
