On September 30, 2026, Alston & Bird secured a complete win for CNO Financial Group Inc. when the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana issued post-trial findings of fact and conclusions of law holding that CNO was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. A certified class of policyholders had sought to hold CNO liable, under an alter ego theory, for a former insurance subsidiary’s breaches of interest-sensitive whole life insurance policies. After an August 2025 bench trial, the court found the plaintiffs were not entitled to the extraordinary equitable remedy of alter ego liability.
This trial was of critical importance because an adverse ruling could have upended the insurance holding company structure under which many insurance companies are owned and managed. In reaching its decision, the court recognized that piercing the corporate veil is disfavored and reserved for “exceptional cases,” and found that the insurance subsidiary operated as a distinct legal entity, with its own board, officers, assets, reserves, and independently audited financial statements, rather than as a mere facade for its corporate parent. Earlier in the litigation, the team had also convinced the court that individualized issues of causation pervaded the class, requiring individual trials to adjudicate class members’ claims.
The Alston & Bird team representing CNO is led by partners Adam Kaiser (Insurance / Class Action & Multidistrict Litigation) and Michael Hefter (Financial Services & Investment Funds Litigation), and includes partners Joanna Schorr and Sam Park, counsel Kristin Shepard and Mike Valerio; senior associates Laura Simmons, Alan Mendelsohn, Mia Falzarano, Jonathan Kim, and Arianna Clark; and associates Kate Kostel and Roby Jernigan (Litigation).