Verhovayak Lapja, 1950 (33. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1950 / Verhovay Journal
PAGE 4 Verhovay Journal November' 15, 1950 Verhoüay Journal of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Ass’n. OFFICE OF PUBLICATION 7981 West Jefferson Ave. Detroit 17, Mich. PUBLLS1IED MONTfTLY BY THE Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association Managing Editor: JOHN BENCZE Editor: JOHN SABO Editor’s Office: 436—442 FOURTH AVENUE ' PITTSBURGH Is. PA. Telephone: C.Otirt 1-3454 or 5-315' AI’ articles and rhapges of addrés3. should be sent to the VERHOVAY FRATERNAL INSURANCE ASSOCIATION 436—442 . FOURTH AVENUE PITTSBURGH is, PA. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States and Canada ..................................... fl.00 a year Foreign Countries ........r.'......................................... Í1.60 a year Entered as Second Class Matter at the Post Office at Detroit, Michigan under the Act of March 3, 1879. OFFICIAL COMMENT THE OFFICERS OF THE VERHOVAY FR ATERNAL INSURANCE ASSOCIATION announce with profound sorrow the death of Mi*s. Coloman Révész nee -Clara Fay Mother of Coloman Revesz. National Secretary. Mrs. Révész died Saturday, October 21, 1950 in the City of Miskolc, County of Borsod. Hungary at »he age of 77. She was the widow of Dr. Coloman Revesz, Bishop of the Reformed Church of Hungary. On behalf of the Officers, Directors and Members of the Association we extend our deepest sympathy to National Secretary Coloman Revesz and the other members of the bereaved family. . the children were naturally placed in the Trust Fund, until the court appointed a guardian who administered the funds for them. This, too. meant a delay in payment. The children needed the money- yet it could not be paid to them because they were under age. The widow should have named her brother or sister, oi some other relative — who could then have immediately administered the funds for the children. BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS AND SICK BENEFIT PROTECTION «, Recent entanglements pertaining to beneficiary designations and questions pertaining to sick benefit age limitation prompted us to devote this issue of the Official Comment to • a discussion of these matters. BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS How long has it been since you looked at your membership certificate? It you are like most membership certificate holders it probably has been a long, long time. We would suggest that you react your membership certificate today, and in the future check it from time to time. One of the most important items to check. in your beneficiary designation. We, as well as most insurance societies, have found that the beneficiary question can become' ver;, perplexing. Beneficiaries who were designated fen, fifteen, i twenty or more years ago have died. Many of them have moved to European countries. Some of them had other complications. These changes have a definite bearing on the payment of claims. The Association has to be certain that the benefit is paid to the proper person or persons, and despite the fact that the By-Laws of the organization provides for most situations similar to those mentioned, still delays in payment of the benefits are experienced. Or.:;. aftei the Association assures itself that all possibilities of legal entanglements are ruled out can it pay the amount due ura ter the terms of the membership certificate. Each of the following paragraphs deals with a particular beneficiary problem. These are taken from actual cases and are brought to the attention of the members to let them see how perplexing this problem can be. Example No. 1. ’ The husband named his wife and children beneficiaries. When he died the claim came due and the wife received one-half of the benefit and the other half was payable in equal shares to his children. The children were not of legal age and the money which was due these children had to be placed in the Trust Fund of the j Association for safekeeping until the children became of age or until the court empowered the mother to administer the funds ^ for the children. 'The husband could have avoided all complicatliiMs if he had designated only his wife as his beneficiary. Example No. 2. The same situation as outlined in Example No, 1 with the exception that all children — six of them — were of legal age. The complication came about when it was necessary to produce «ix baptismal or birth certificates. This delayed payment until the birth or baptismal certificates were produced. The children signed a statement requesting the Association to pay the entire benefit to the mother, still the Association could do nothing other than to respect the wishes of the deceased member, in otherword«, strictly adhere to his beneficiary designation — wife and children. As in the first example the entanglements could have foeen avoided if only the wife had been named beneficiary. Example No. 3. The widow designated her three children as her beneficiaries. She died before any of them were of legal age. The benefits due Example No. 4. The beneficiary became mentally incompetent. The benefit was held in trust until the court appointed someone to administer his funds. The membership certificate holder knew of the j condition of his beneficiary, still he made no provision to change the designation to some other person permitted by the state statutes and our By-Laws. Example No. 5. Payments Blocked to Beneficiaries in Some Foreign Countries The beneficiary lived in Hungary. When the claim came due as a result of the death of the member, the Association could not pay the claim due to government regulations. The United States Government regulations have blocked payment of benefits to any beneficiary residing in any of the Russian satellite countries —• Hungary, Rumania and Yugoslavia — to mention a few. There have been more than several such cases, consequently we can do nothing other than to inform all members to check this particular case very closely and if they have beneficiaries residing in any of the Russian satellite countries to make immediate provision to change the designation to someone residing m this country, naturally keeping in mind the state statutes and the provisions of our By-Laws. CHECK YOUR CERTIFICATE TODAY The Association always pays claims promptly. When complications such as those outlined above arise, however, it can do nothing other than to hold up payment, of the benefit until it is certain that no legal entanglements will be encountered. We would appreciate it if every member would cooperate with us by checking his membership certificate today and if he finds that he would like to make a change of beneficiary, or if he is in need of " additional information, to kindly see his branch manager or to write to the Home Office. SICK BENEFIT MEMBERSHIP Many of our members of long standing have written to the Home Office inquiring about the termination age of their sick benefit protection. Usually the Official Publication carries a full listing of all the various plans of insurance we carry and the Sick Benefit description mentions the fact that the sick benefit protection ceases at age 65. This page of information pertaining only to new membershp, has been misunderstood by some of our older sick benefit members to the point that they think their sick benefits, too, will be terminated at age 65. Such is not the case. Any member who Joined the sick benefit department prior to January 3, 1944 has UNLIMITED protection, naturally only to the extent provided by the Class of sick benefit protection they have. The termination at age 65 applies only to those who have taken outi sick benefit protection from January 1, 1944 and naturally to all new members since that time. The change in the sick benefit protection resulted at the 1943 convention at the request of various Departments of Insurance which insisted that the fraternal societies adhere to the new insurance laws pertaining to sick benefit age termination.
