"The question for Umbrell, Lohman and a million others with these accounts is whether anything will change. State bank regulators say if there are to be any reforms, they should be
made by insurance departments. Officials at those state agencies
often say they don’t even understand what a retained-asset
account is.

“It’s flown under the radar,” professor Stempel says. “Regulators have not done their job.”

Until public officials wake up, the bereaved will remain a secret profit center for the life insurance industry."