Insurance Benefit Costs Northern Iowa and Its Donors

The University of Northern Iowa has frustrated many of its donors with an insurance program that turned out to violate federal tax laws, The Des Moines Register reported. The program -- a group insurance offering -- was supposed to be a benefit available to donors to an athletic scholarship fund. But the university spent years fighting with the insurance company over specifics, and only this year determined that the effort violated federal law. The university may now owe up to $170,000 in back taxes, and nearly 1,700 donors may have lost more than $6 million in accumulated insurance, the Register reported.