Life Insurers Can Accelerate Past-Due Child Support Payments with Verisk Data

Life insurers will be able to help streamline matching of claim settlements with outstanding child support obligations under agreements Verisk announced today with the Child Support Lien Network (CSLN) and the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE). The collaboration expands automated child support matching available for property/casualty insurers to the life industry.

More than $114 billion of child support payments are past due in the United States, according to OCSE, reflecting U.S. Census data that counts more than 12.9 million custodial parents—half of whom have some form of legal or informal child support in place. A growing number of states require insurers to match settlements to claimants who owe past-due child support, so these outstanding financial obligations can be met when claims are paid.

In addition to compulsory states, many insurers voluntarily participate in child support matching in all states. This approach delivers an efficient claim processing workflow while helping to ensure compliance. When they enable matching in all states, insurers can reduce the risk of missing a state change from voluntary to mandatory, automatically meeting child support agencies’ regulatory requirements. Effective January 2022, Washington joined a growing number of jurisdictions shifting from voluntary to compulsory child support intercept for life insurers.

“As a steward of insurance industry claims data through our contributory database, Verisk is uniquely positioned to help the industry stay in compliance, supplying data elements that can help identify outstanding child support obligations or liens before insurers pay claims,” said Carlos Martins, senior vice president of claim solutions at Verisk. “Because of this collaboration, insurers can reduce the need for manual intervention and help improve efficiency and accuracy by opting in for electronic data reporting.”

“Access to Verisk’s vast database in support of this mission will give life insurers vital resources to respond to a necessary but significant ask on the part of regulators across the country,” said Project Director George French at CSLN. “The public/private partnership of CSLN offers insurers a streamlined process that fits seamlessly into existing claims processes. Further, expanding our work with a trusted data steward like Verisk will help us deepen our partnership with the insurance industry, to the benefit of children and families across the country.”

To support life insurers across the policy life cycle, Verisk has developed a suite of solutions that apply advanced analytics, automation and machine learning to existing and emerging data sources. The solutions are designed to help transform current workflows in life insurance underwriting, life and pension analytics, claim insights, compliance and fraud detection and actuarial and portfolio modeling.