Transamerica Class Counsel Ask for $47.5 Million — One-Third of a $142.4 Million “Total Value,” With About $41.6 Million Coming Out of the $110 Million Cash Fund. No Policyowner Had Opted Out or Objected by September 17.

If you own or owned a Transamerica “Direct Recognition Life” policy (DRL-10 or DRL-11) that was in force on January 1, 2016, nothing has been paid from the $110 million transamerica life insurance settlement as of October 8, 2026, and nothing needs to be filed. The official site, WrenCVISettlement.com, run by JND Legal Administration, still says: “You will automatically receive a settlement check in the mail from JND Legal Administration as the Settlement Administrator if you are entitled to one. No claims need to be filed.”

What is new since our September 8 report on the settlement terms is the price tag. On September 18, 2026, class counsel filed their motion for fees, expenses and service awards (Dkt. 212), with a supporting memorandum, a declaration from lead counsel Steven G. Sklaver, and a short declaration from JND on administration costs. The headline numbers: $47,455,027 in fees, $447,905.48 in expenses, and $25,000 each for William F. Wren and John Murphy. The notice that went to policyowners had already said counsel would seek up to one-third of the “gross settlement benefits”; the motion now puts a figure on what that phrase means.

The filing also gives the first look at how the class reacted. The memorandum states: “As of September 17, 2026, no Class Member has objected, and no Class Member has opted out.” The deadline for both was October 2, 2026, two weeks later, so that is not the final count. When we checked on October 8, 2026, the site’s Key Dates page still showed both October 2 deadlines as “Status: Upcoming” and had posted no tally. If nobody opted out, the fund stays at the full $110 million; under the agreement, every opt-out shrinks it by that policy’s share.

The fee is not one-third of the cash. Counsel add up three things: the $110 million fund; $26,529,683 in cash-value increases (CVIs) that Transamerica credited or guaranteed under what its own documents called the “Wren Crediting Project” — $14,648,637.64 in 30-year CVIs already credited, which counsel value at $16,276,264.04, and $11,675,929.48 in 40-year CVIs promised to those policies if they stay in force, valued at $10,253,419.76; and the separate fee payment. Their total is $142,365,081, and one-third of that is exactly $47,455,027. The memorandum argues the cash alone equals “between 90.6% and 134.8% of the total unpaid CVIs Plaintiffs contend Transamerica owes,” and that a result above 90 percent justifies going above the Ninth Circuit’s 25 percent benchmark.

Who pays what is set by the settlement agreement. Transamerica “agrees to pay Class Counsel $5,835,397.97 (the ‘BCP Fees’)” for the crediting project, and that amount is not part of the $110 million. The rest of any award comes out of the fund. Our arithmetic, assuming the court grants every dollar requested and using JND’s cost estimate:

• $47,455,027 fee request − $5,835,397.97 paid by Transamerica = $41,619,629.03 from the fund — about 37.8 percent of the $110 million (the full request equals about 43 percent of the cash).
• Expenses $447,905.48 and service awards $50,000.
• Administration: JND says it had spent about $50,087.06 by September 17, 2026 and expects about $102,000 more, “including work in connection with benefit distribution.”
• Left for checks: about $67.7 million, or roughly $28,700 per policy on a straight average across all 2,356.

That average is only a yardstick. The plan of allocation pays pro rata by each policy’s unpaid 30-year CVI; policies already credited under the Bonus Crediting Project have an unpaid amount of zero and get no check from the fund, and every other policy gets at least $100, including policies that ended before their 30th anniversary. Because the number of credited policies is not public, the real average among the policies that get a check is higher than $28,700, and individual checks will vary widely. For comparison, a fee at the 25 percent benchmark applied to counsel’s own $142.4 million figure would be about $35.6 million — about $11.9 million less — and would leave roughly $79.6 million for the class by the same arithmetic.

Judges in the Ninth Circuit often check a percentage fee against the “lodestar” — hours worked times hourly rates. Counsel report 6,187 hours through September 18, 2026, “representing a lodestar of $6,363,094,” at rates “ranging from $190 to $1,850 per hour.” The motion says plainly: “Here, the requested fee yields a 7.46 multiplier.” By our arithmetic, $47,455,027 over 6,187 hours is about $7,670 per hour. Counsel argue the multiplier is justified by the risk: the court granted Transamerica summary judgment in 2022, which “rendered this case completely worthless,” before the Ninth Circuit reversed on March 7, 2024; they cite cases approving multipliers from 6.92 to 19.6, and note that Judge Bernal himself has approved one-third fees without a lodestar cross-check.

The memorandum also adds detail about the dispute itself, as counsel describe it. Counsel say documents produced in discovery showed Transamerica decided to “kick the can down the road” on the 30-year bonuses rather than tell policyholders early, at what the company called the “30 year bonus Armageddon.” Those are counsel’s characterizations in a fee brief; Transamerica denies wrongdoing and the court has not ruled on the merits. On the fee motion itself, the notice of motion records: “Transamerica takes no position on the bases for, or the relief sought in, this motion.” That leaves the size of the fee to Judge Bernal, who can award less than requested — a cut to the fee does not change the settlement and would leave more in the fund.

For almost everyone in the class: nothing. There is no claim form, and the October 2, 2026 deadlines to opt out or object have passed. Checks go to the owner of record in Transamerica’s files; where a policy has two or more owners, the share is split equally. If your mailing address has changed, contact the administrator — that is the one thing that can stop a check from reaching you.

The calendar from here: the fairness hearing is November 9, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific, Courtroom 1, 3470 Twelfth Street, Riverside, where Judge Bernal will consider final approval and the fee motion. Under paragraph 133 of the agreement, JND mails checks “within 60 days after the Final Settlement Date or as otherwise provided in the Final Approval Order.” The Final Settlement Date comes only after final approval and the end of any appeals. No official document names a mailing date; by our reading, early 2027 is plausible if approval comes on schedule and nobody appeals. That is an estimate, not a promise. The settlement also tells recipients to consult a tax advisor about the payment.

Because nobody files a claim, any message asking you to “register,” “verify” a policy, pay a processing fee or give bank details to receive your share should be treated as suspect. The genuine administrator is the Wren v. TLIC Settlement Administrator, c/o JND Legal Administration, P.O. Box 91248, Seattle, WA 98111; phone 1-888-305-6486; email info@wrenCVIsettlement.com. Payments are by check in the mail. If in doubt, call the number on the official site, not one in the message. Separately, note that some third-party listings show October 2, 2026 under a “claim form deadline” heading; there was never a claim form in this case — October 2 was only the opt-out and objection deadline.

The case began on February 1, 2021, after Transamerica told DRL policyowners in 2016 that it would not credit cash-value bonuses at the 30th and 40th anniversaries, citing a 2001 class settlement. It lost at summary judgment in 2022, was revived by the Ninth Circuit on March 7, 2024, went through discovery of more than 2 million pages, and settled after mediations on October 9, 2025 and January 12, 2026. Judge Bernal granted preliminary approval on July 30, 2026. Our earlier article walks through the plan of allocation, the $100 floor and the non-contestability promise in detail; for how insurers’ refusals to pay become lawsuits more generally, see our insurance bad-faith guide.

Nobody on the other side of the case is contesting the fee. Transamerica has no stake in how the fund is split, and as of September 17 no policyowner had filed an objection. That makes November 9 the point where the only check on the $47.5 million request is the judge — and where, for 2,356 policies, the difference between the requested fee and the benchmark is about $11.9 million of their money.