MADISON, Wis.–As TruStage’s ongoing service outage continues to play out, one thing it has revealed is just how much CU members count on the company (and their credit unions) in times of need, with those who have policies with the company even posting comments on TheCUDaily.com to air complaints and worries over everything from missed payments to an inability to cover funeral expenses, with one person even saying they have been forced to leave their sister “frozen” for now.
Separately, CU Daily readers have also shared their feedback on two recent opinion pieces related to the system outage at TruStage.
As the CU Daily first reported here, TruStage’s systems have been out for more than a month, after the company said it detected unusual activity on its network on July 11 and immediately shut down its systems to investigate. It has confirmed its systems were breached after “a member of our workforce may have inadvertently downloaded a malicious file while trying to install a legitimate tool.”
The outage has affected an untold number of credit union members, some of whose comments appear below.
In an update posted last week, TruStage again stated it has established a clean, isolated technology environment that is separate from any systems that were impacted, potentially impacted or remain under investigation, and that it is using that environment as part of it ongoing restoration work.
In a statement to the CU Daily. the company said, “TruStage continues to make progress in its recovery and restoration efforts following the cybersecurity attack. Since the attack was detected, we have focused on containing the incident, rebuilding portions of our technology infrastructure, restoring systems in a safe and controlled manner, and supporting the partners, clients, members, and customers we serve.”
Additional Update
It further noted:
- “Call centers for retirement, life, and annuities continue to serve customers and we expect to expand our capabilities in the weeks ahead.”
- “Most defined contribution participants, except those on certain legacy platforms, can now request withdrawals and loans when permitted under their plan. They can also call to request account balance updates.”
- “As previously shared, the cybersecurity attack did not impact annuity and retirement plan assets.”
- “We have started paying preplanning and funeral claims, GAP claims, debt protection and credit insurance benefits, and some life claims.
Consumers and credit unions are being urged to go here for more information and updates.
News that it has begun paying claims will come as welcome news to many CU members, who have expressed frustrations in comments filed on TheCUDaily.com following reports on the earlier updates the company has issued, as well as the lawsuits it faces, which now number more than a dozen.
It is unusual for consumers to file comments related to reporting done by trade publications.
What Members are Saying
Among some of the comments posted with the CU Daily:
- “My husband passed away unexpectedly on July 12th, one day after the attack. I am on disability and am desperate for my insurance payout for a multitude of reasons. I had to borrow money for his funeral. Now my mortgage, car payment and other various payments are late. This is ridiculous and has dragged on far too long. I NEED HELP NOW!!!”
- “They still have not notified us of a problem. We found out on our own. Still no communication at all. We have credit life and disability on two loans. I am totally disabled and my wife is terminally ill. This company is extremely hard to work with, and now this lack of security, and backups is hurting millions of people. People want answers, and sadly I doubt we will ever get them. 80 years in business and not accredited with the Better Business Bureau. Credit Unions apperenty (sic) didn’t vet theses (sic) people well.”
- “Still unable to make contact with via telephone or email – which results in no information regarding my account forthcoming. TruStage needs to correspond directly with everyone who has a policy with them. It is basic business courtesy.”
- “I have a claim number that I’ve been trying to collect my husband’s life policy but no one and I mean no one that I have searched on the web is telling anybody anything everybody’s in the dark nobody can talk to them what’s really going on better Business bureau needs to be involved in this at this point because it’s getting out of control.”
- “Contacted TruStage to cancel my life insurance policy and was advised by the agent that it could not be processed. I previously worked for an international insurance company and when the computer/ electronic system went down there was a backup administrative system for maintaining and continuing client business. We are living in an age when AI and computer systems are not 100% reliable or error free and this sort of incident will increase. They can’t even access your business profile to process a manual cancellation. This speaks volumes about the unprepared state of businesses in America!”
- “My sister has passed away and I have no way to bury her. they is keeping her in the freezer until they get payment and i cannot reach nobody and this is fixing to be a month i need help.”
- “TruStage refuse to except a payment for my life insurance. I have had TruStage Life insurance for many years. I need my life insurance. Whats going on????”
- “No notice was sent to credit unions or members. No updates. Millions at risk. I think something bigger is going on here. Serious security lapses at the very least. At first they said they knew on the 10th. Now it’s the 11th. They didn’t shut down till the 15th. We found out on 19th and informed our credit union. They had no clue. TruStage is not accredited with BBB. When we opened our claim we called them and got a third party call center in what sounded like India. That was 18 months ago. I expressed concern to our credit union then. When we called them about loan payments not made we again got a third party call center that sounded like India. There is something very wrong going on here. Weather it’s poor security and no firewalled offsite backups or worse, it’s very hard to say. I hope The Feds are involved either way. Class action suits are coming already.”
- “I can’t get anyone to answer my question about a claim I filed weeks ago. My husband died on June 23, 2026, and I can’t reach a person at TruStage to process the claim so I can follow up with funeral plans. Crappy customer services. I may have to contact a law office to get my insurance money. Good luck dealing with this company!”
- “I have had Life Insurance with TruStage for many years and for some reason I cannot pay my Life Insurance bill. Is this something that I have to worry about? No life insurance?????”
- “TruStage is not excepting (sic) Life Insurance payment at this time. It has been some time since I have not been able to pay my life insurance because a system hack at TruStage. When will they fix this. I need my life insurance???? Or is this a scam and after all these years all my payments have been lost.”
CUs Respond to Opinion Piece
Separately, CU Daily readers have filed a number of comments on two separate opinion pieces authored by Jeff Bassill on the TruStage situation. Those pieces, were headlined respectively, “Three Questions TruStage Should be Able to Answer Right Now,” and “TruStage is Not Just Another Vendor (And the Silencer Around it Says Something).” Both pieces saw significant readership.
Among the reader comments:
- “CU’s pay for protection? (America’s Credit Unions) is complicit if they are silent? Is that how it works? Sure, they take our money, but we don’t pay for them to manage our vendors. You don’t go tattle to mom when your brother socks you in the arm. ACU can add no value to this. How does their public acknowledgement of this help anyone? How does creating a web link and reposting the same exact info from TruStage help a credit union?”
- “It’s good to see Bessemer (FCU) take action. Credit unions should be focused on helping their members, holding TruStage accountable, and then owning their own vendor management and governance breakdowns for doing business with a vendor that left itself this exposed and didn’t have independent enough systems for unrelated businesses and product lines.”
- “TruStage’s customers are dues paying members of ACU and consumers that they claim to protect, not some uninvolved third party population. Considering the state leagues have already been acknowledging operational impact for their members, it’s not a leap to think that the national trade association should offer assistance to its members.”
- “TruStage isn’t just a close system relationship they’ve put real money behind ACU’s advocacy campaigns. Maybe that’s totally irrelevant to the silence here. However, if it is relevant, “understanding what their role is and isn’t” starts to sound like yet another convenient excuse for ACU to take our money, take our vendors money and look the other way.”
- “America’s Credit Unions should have no role in this in this process or response. This is between TruStage and their customers. If in any way their response and communication is insufficient, that’s on them. ACU doesn’t add value here, and getting in the middle of things like this is not their role or purpose. “Acknowledging the operational impact” does nothing to help anyone. TruStage isn’t going to work harder to fix this or do anything different if ACU weighs in and acts like they matter in this issue. Kudos to them for understanding what their role is and isn’t.”
