A Baltimore woman has finally received her late mother's life insurance payout after a nationwide cyberattack on insurer TruStage left her waiting weeks, stuck on hold, and unsure whether the money would ever come. Matesse Pope's mother, Lois Cash, died on September 4 after paying into her TruStage life insurance policy for two decades, and Pope says the process of collecting on that policy should never have been this hard.
Cash had a dementia diagnosis before she died, and Pope, her daughter, says she spent weeks trying to reach a TruStage agent afterward, according to WBAL News Radio. On one call alone, Pope waited 38 minutes with 10 people still ahead of her in the queue. She told the station she hoped the payout process would not be so difficult, and said thinking about her mother left her emotional and stressed throughout the ordeal.
A Nationwide Network Shutdown Behind the Delays
The holdup traced back to a broad cybersecurity attack TruStage identified on its network on July 11, one that prompted the company to deliberately take its technology infrastructure offline for more than a month to contain the intrusion rather than simply rebooting compromised systems, as reported by American Banker. That containment shutdown abruptly cut off phone lines, online account access, and automated claims processing across the country. TruStage, formerly known as CUNA Mutual Group, serves tens of millions of Americans, largely through its credit union partnerships, according to TruStage.
The outage's reach went well beyond life insurance. The same network shutdown halted claims for Guaranteed Asset Protection auto insurance, mechanical repair coverage, payment protection, and retirement account management, forcing credit unions nationwide to field member complaints and build interim workarounds, per the American Banker report.
Recovery Still Incomplete Months Later
As of late September, TruStage's own recovery dashboard indicated that core claims submission, processing, and payout operations remained only partially operational while the company rebuilt its infrastructure from scratch, according to a report from the same account. Some policy-servicing functions continued to rely on manual processing workarounds. TruStage reported that recovery is progressing but that delays persist.
After WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates contacted TruStage on Pope's behalf, her claim was processed and the payment was sent. TruStage has also told policyholders and credit union partners that forensic investigations into whether personal customer data was accessed or stolen during the July attack would take two to three months to complete, according to Elite Capital Financial. The company has not publicly confirmed any theft of customer personal information.
Maryland Regulators Fielding Complaints
Consumers have filed 16 complaints regarding TruStage with the state agency, which has closed five of them while 11 remain under investigation. Impacted consumers may file a complaint through the agency's hotline at 800-492-6116.
The agency has shown it can move on insurer complaints: during the first six months of 2026, it recovered more than $53.5 million for state consumers through complaint resolutions and enforcement actions, including over $2.1 million through its voluntary Rapid Response Program, according to a statement from the Office of Governor Wes Moore.
Mounting Legal Pressure Nationally
TruStage's troubles are not confined to Maryland. The first federal lawsuit against the company was filed on July 17 by Pennsylvania-based Bessemer System Federal Credit Union. U.S. District Judge William M. Conley has since consolidated 14 proposed federal class-action lawsuits against TruStage in the Western District of Wisconsin, placing a temporary stay on litigation while the parties work out discovery protocols, according to Credit Union Daily. The consolidated action is led by Bessemer System Federal Credit Union and Surf Pediatrics and Medicine.
For families like Pope's, the wait offered little comfort while they waited for word on a policy meant to ease the burden of a parent's death, not add to it.
