Q. When I was just a kid back in the mid-1930s, my mother had taken out two insurance policies with what then was the Monumental Insurance Co.
This was when the agents would come to the door each month to collect the premium of 50 cents (when mom could manage to get that sum together). The policies reached maturity over 15 years ago at a value of $250 each. Much to my chagrin, I lost the insurance documents, and am now at a loss to find the method of contacting Monumental Insurance. All I have to go with is my name and address of where we lived when the policies were initiated. The $500 doesn't mean that much to me now, but I will give it back to my mother who is now 97 years old and who struggled so long ago to pay those premiums.
Dick Kraft,
Bethel Park
A. You aren't the only Pittsburgher with this question. Those door-to-door insurance men were on just about every street and doorstep back then. Over the years, literally hundreds of companies sold these kinds of policies.
So where to begin? The Pennsylvania Insurance Department's Office of Regulation of Companies keeps track of insurance companies that do business in Pennsylvania or have done business in Pennsylvania. The state can help you track a company that has gone belly-up or been bought out or "merged around." Sometimes all it takes is a phone call. Other times it takes a bit of detective work.
Your search starts with a call to the Insurance Department's toll-free hot line at 877-881-6388. That's an automated hot line but someone should call you back within 24 hours. You can also call the local Pittsburgh office at 412-565-5020. The more information you have on hand, the easier the search will be. It certainly helps to have the policy number, but not having that policy number does not mean a dead end. What was the name on the policy? Do you have the Social Security number? What was your address at the time the policy was issued?
If there are problems finding your policy or the company that issued that policy, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department will ask you to fill out a form and mail it in. If an insurance company goes bankrupt, its "book of business" is often given to another insurance carrier or split up among several companies.
In your case, Dick, there is no problem. Amazing as it is in this day and age, Monumental Life Insurance Co. still exists. It is headquartered in Baltimore but still has a Pittsburgh office. The company's Rosemary Riesett says Monumental Life Insurance has been in business since the mid-1800s and is still going strong.
"We were one of the first, if not the first, company to issue weekly premium policies where agents go door to door and collect," says Riesett. "We stopped weekly premium policies in 1975, but we still have agents who go to homes and collect those premiums."
Back to your money, Dick. Since the policy is in your name and you are still alive (that's the good news) the payout is a little less (that's the bad news). There is no record of two policies. Since you tell me your mom only remembers one policy at 43 cents a week anyway, that probably explains it. The $250 life insurance policy has a payout to a living policy holder of $181. Not a pot of gold for your mom, but a mystery solved and lots of memories revisited.
Post Your Problems appears Tuesday through Friday, addressing questions and problems from readers.
Yvonne Zanos from KDKA-TV looks into consumer-related issues, including difficulties with products and
services. Post-Gazette Staff Writer Lawrence Walsh helps sort through bureaucratic problems.
Yvonne Zanos is KDKA-TV consumer editor. She can be reached at 412-575-2234, zanos@kdka.com,
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