Unitrin Agrees To Race-Based Pricing Settlement

“We deeply regret that years ago, some of our companies followed the industry practice of using race as one of several factors in determining insurance rates, and we apologize to our former and current customers for the time it took to address this issue,” Richard Vie, Unitrin’s chairman, says in a statement announcing the settlement. “Race-based pricing is not our practice today and has not been practiced by our companies for decades, so we are pleased to have resolved this historic pricing issue and renew our mission to provide basic, affordable and fairly priced insurance for all our customers.”

Unitrin estimates the court settlement, if approved, will affect about 300,000 policies, or 3% of the policies that the company has in force.

? Current policyholders can choose between cash or higher death benefits on policies that are still in force.

? Beneficiaries or heirs of racially underwritten policies on which a death claim or endowment was paid will receive a supplemental cash payment.

? Persons who owned racially underwritten policies that were in effect after 1960 but have since lapsed or terminated are also eligible to make a claim for benefits.