Talcott Hartford Premium Tax Settlement: No Claim Needed

At a glance

Status

Pending final approval

Defendant

Talcott Resolution Life & Annuity Insurance Company; Talcott Resolution Life Insurance Company (Prudential Insurance Co. of America as policy administrator; Hartford Life entities are predecessors, not defendants)

Settlement fund

$11,000,000

Claim deadline

No claim deadline set yet

No-proof cash option

Yes — automatic cash payment mailed by JND Legal Administration after final approval; no claim form required

Estimated payout

automatic cash payment mailed by JND Legal Administration after final approval; no claim form required

Administrator

JND Legal Administration

Official site

www.premiumtaxsettlement.com

Court

U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York

Case number

7:23-cv-07972-CS (Arbuckle Funding LLC et al. v. Talcott Resolution Life & Annuity Insurance Company et al.), No. 7:23-cv-07972-CS

Last verified September 9, 2026

Key dates

Milestone	Date	What it means
Claim deadline	No claim deadline set yet	Last day to file for a payment
Opt-out (exclusion) deadline	August 26, 2026(passed)	Last day to leave the settlement and keep the right to sue
Objection deadline	August 26, 2026(passed)	Last day to object to the terms
Final approval hearing	September 24, 2026	When the judge decides whether to approve the settlement
Expected payout	Not yet scheduled	Payments are not sent until after final approval and any appeals

Where to file

Talcott / Hartford Life Insurance Premium Tax Charge Settlement is administered by JND Legal Administration. The only place to file is the official settlement website:

Verify on the official site

www.premiumtaxsettlement.com

Filing is free. No legitimate settlement charges a fee to file a claim.

You cannot file on RecordingLaw.com. We are an independent publisher, not the settlement administrator, and we are not affiliated with any court, agency, or defendant.

What happened

A group of Hartford and Talcott life insurance policy owners sued over how their premium tax charges were calculated. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York as Arbuckle Funding LLC et al. v. Talcott Resolution Life & Annuity Insurance Company et al., case number 7:23-cv-07972-CS, alleges that owners of universal life and variable universal life policies were charged premium tax amounts that were miscalculated when their state's tax rate changed.

The defendants are both Talcott entities, Talcott Resolution Life & Annuity Insurance Company and Talcott Resolution Life Insurance Company, with The Prudential Insurance Company of America named as the policy administrator. Hartford entities, specifically Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Company and Hartford Life Insurance Company, are not defendants; they are named only as predecessors that issued many of the affected policies before Talcott acquired much of Hartford's legacy life insurance business. That history is why some class members may still think of their policy as a "Hartford" policy even though it is Talcott being sued.

The parties reached a proposed settlement rather than taking the case to trial. That settlement still needs a judge's sign-off before any money moves, which is where things stand as of July 2026.

Where the case stands right now, and why

As of July 2026, this settlement has preliminary approval but not final approval. That distinction matters. A judge approved the deal well enough to let the class notice go out and the exclusion window open, but has not yet held the hearing where objections are considered, the settlement terms are scrutinized, and attorneys' fees are set.

That hearing is calendared for September 24, 2026 in the Southern District of New York. Until it happens, no one, including JND Legal Administration, can start mailing checks. There is no separate claims-review backlog holding this up and no appeal pending; it is simply waiting for its turn on the court calendar. Anyone who tells you a specific payment date before that hearing has occurred is not working from the court record.

Who is in the class

You are potentially a class member if you own, or owned, a universal life or variable universal life policy issued by Talcott (or a Hartford predecessor entity) where the premium tax charge was tied to your state or municipality of residence, and your policy fits at least one of two separate, alternative tests.

The first, the Address Change Issue, applies no matter what state you live in now: your address of record changed to a state with a lower premium tax rate after the policy was issued, and the insurer allegedly did not adjust the premium tax charge to match the new, lower rate.

The second, the Tax Rate Issues, is narrower. It applies only if your address of record was in one of 17 named jurisdictions: Arizona, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, or Wyoming, and the insurer allegedly applied an incorrect premium tax rate there, for example by not updating the rate when the law changed, or by applying Connecticut's rate to a non-Connecticut policyholder under a retaliatory-tax provision.

You only need to meet one of the two, not both. The premiums also have to fall within a specific payment window that varies by state and by which issue applies, generally sometime between 2015 and early 2025; the settlement agreement's Exhibit B has the exact dates for your situation. The official notice describes the class in these terms rather than by a fixed list of policy series or years.

If none of that matches your policy, either because it is a different Hartford or Talcott product, it never carried a premium tax charge, or it falls outside the applicable date window, you are likely not part of this settlement. The official settlement website is the place to check your specific policy, not a third-party blog or forum post.

How much people realistically get

The $11 million fund is a common fund, meaning it covers every eligible class member's payment plus court-approved attorneys' fees and costs. The official notice does not publish a per-person or per-policy dollar figure, and this article will not invent one.

What is confirmed is the mechanics: payments will be automatic cash amounts mailed by JND Legal Administration, calculated from the fund on a formula the court has not yet finalized. Like any common-fund settlement, individual amounts can be adjusted up or down depending on how many valid class members there are and what the court approves for fees. Treat any number you see quoted for this settlement, aside from the $11 million total fund, as unverified unless it comes directly from JND or the court filings.

What proof is needed

The official notice describes this as a no-claim-form settlement. Eligible class members do not submit documentation, receipts, or a claim form to receive a payment. JND Legal Administration is expected to identify eligible policy owners from Hartford and Talcott's own policy records rather than from anything a class member submits.

This is worth repeating because it cuts against how most people expect class action settlements to work. If you receive correspondence asking you to "file" documentation, upload proof of your policy, or pay a fee to receive your share of this specific settlement, that does not match how the official process is structured.

How to file

There is nothing to file. If you are an eligible class member, you do not need to submit a form, register online, or contact the administrator to receive your payment once the court grants final approval. The only action available to a class member right now is the opposite of filing: deciding whether to exclude yourself from the class (opt out) or to object to the settlement terms, both against an August 26, 2026 deadline. The two deadlines are not identical in what they require: an exclusion request must be postmarked by August 26, 2026, while a written objection must be filed with the court and served on counsel by August 26, 2026, which is a stricter standard than a mailbox postmark.

Excluding yourself means you leave the class, keep your own right to sue Talcott and Hartford separately over the same premium tax claims, and give up any payment from this $11 million fund. Objecting is different: you stay in the class and eligible for a payment, but you tell the judge in writing why you think the settlement terms are unfair, and the judge considers that objection at the September 24, 2026 hearing. Most eligible class members do neither and simply wait for the automatic payment process to run its course after final approval.

If you are not sure whether you are covered

If you have not received a notice but believe you own or owned a qualifying Hartford or Talcott policy, the official settlement website is the place to check, not a search result or a third party offering to "look up" your eligibility. The same applies if you receive an unsolicited call, text, or email referencing this settlement and asking for a Social Security number, bank account information, or a fee: a legitimate payment under this settlement is mailed automatically and does not require you to provide financial information or pay anything to receive it.

If you decide to research your own policy statements for premium tax charges, keep copies of your annual statements. They are the only records that would matter if you ever needed to raise a question about your own policy directly with Talcott or Prudential as administrator.