Plaintiff Terri F. has filed a lawsuit in Missouri federal court against Unum Life Insurance Company of America, alleging the company unfairly terminated her long term disability benefits.

According to the ERISA long term disability lawsuit, Unum had issued a policy of disability insurance to the plaintiff, and she was entitled to that benefit once she had met the definition of disability under the long term disability plan.

The long term disability plan, according to Terri’s complaint, was supposed to continue to benefit Terri until she reached 65 years of age in September 2032.

The ERISA long term disability lawsuit maintains that she had been unable to work as a banker at the First State Bank and Trust since November 2007. She claims she had then reached and met the definition of disability under the policy’s long-term plan.

According to the ERISA long term disability lawsuit, she had also been found totally disabled by the Social Security Administration.

However, in March 2016, Unum decided that Terri no longer met the definition of a disabled person and terminated her benefits as a result. Terri says that termination was erroneous, as she has been totally disabled under the terms of the policy since 2007.

According to the ERISA long term disability lawsuit, although the defendant had denied Terri’s long-term disability benefits, they had not provided any specific reasons for doing so. The ERISA long term disability lawsuit states that Unum had failed to provide “a full and fair review of plaintiff’s claims.”

Terri’s  employer-sponsored disability insurance is governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA. According to the United States Department of Labor, ERISA is a “federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntary established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans.”

Unum is the largest disability insurance company in the United States. It also provides as many as 17 million insurance policies to Americans. Several plaintiffs, such as Terri, have filed Unum lawsuits alleging the insurance company of failing to pay them long term disability benefits has stated under the insurance policy.

Like Terri, these plaintiffs allege the insurance company unfairly denied their claims. In addition, there have been accusations against the company that it purposely denies these claims in order to increase profit and revenue.

Former employees of Unum have also maintained and have concurred that these allegations against the company are true. These former employees state that Unum may deny a plaintiff’s long-term insurance disability benefits for no other reason than to increase the company’s profits.

In addition to the accusations maintained by former employees, 60 minutes, in a 2002 documentary reported that Unum had been systematically denying valid disability claims to increase company revenue and profits.

The ERISA Long Term Disability Lawsuit is Case No. 1:17-cv-00177- SNLJ, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Southeastern Division.