General American News

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The General American Mutual Holding Co. (GAMHC) receivership sent notice packets to more than 300,000 persons and companies in April 2003 about the liquidation of GAMHC and their share of the initial $1 billion distribution of GAMHC’s assets.

The notices were sent to GAMHC’s “eligible members.” As a mutual holding company, GAMHC – the former parent of General American Life – legally was owned by its “members,” who were owners of General American Life policies or contracts as of Jan. 5, 2000. General American Life was sold to MetLife on Jan. 6, 2000.

A small percentage of these notice packets was returned to GAMHC by the post office. GAMHC hired an address research firm to help find these lost members. GAMHC opened a call center at 1-800-569-4721 to help eligible members understand the notice packet and to accept address changes. GAMHC updated as many addresses as possible and sent a follow-up mailing in October 2003. GAMHC continued to look for eligible members through 2004 and a second follow-up mailing was sent in August 2004.

The notice packets included these documents:

• A notice guide to help eligible members understand the contents of the packet.
• A member information booklet that contained detailed information on the liquidation of GAMHC and the distribution of its assets.
• The eligible member distribution card that told the eligible members how much they can expect to receive from the initial distribution of $1 billion.
• A postage paid envelope to return the taxpayer identification number certification card (W-9) attached to the eligible member distribution card.

GAMHC mailed checks for the initial distribution of $1 billion in September 2003 to all members except: 1) eligible members who submitted an objection; 2) eligible members whose notice packets were returned by the post office; and 3) eligible members who contacted the call center and notified GAMHC that they did not receive a packet. For those members included in the October mailing, their distribution checks were mailed as addresses were updated and as objections were resolved.

GAMHC mailed checks for the second distribution of $200 million at the end of March 2005. Checks were mailed to all the eligible members except: 1) those who appealed their objection; and 2) those who do not have a current address on file with GAMHC.

GAMHC mailed checks for the third distribution of about $150 million beginning on Nov. 28, 2007, and continuing over a period of 10 working days.

For its fourth distribution, GAMHC mailed checks totaling nearly $75 million to 302,359 eligible members in 2009. About 30,000 checks were mailed daily from Nov. 18 to Dec. 2, 2009.

The Supervising Court ordered a fifth and final distribution totaling $68 million in July 2012.

Certain tax and administrative issues need to be finalized in order to discharge the Liquidator.

The following documents are available through the GAMHC Internet Information Center (click on the link for access):