Ameriprise Financial Inc. unit RiverSource Life Insurance Co. has agreed to pay $1.5 million to certain states related to its use of the Social Security Death Master File database.

The practice violated California's Unfair Insurance Practices Act and similar laws in other states, according to California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. Ameriprise has now agreed to use the database to identify life insurance policyholders who have died, and then to search for and pay benefits to their beneficiaries.

As of the result of investigations by state regulators looking into the use of the Death Master File, life insurers have paid $7.3 billion to date to life insurance beneficiaries across the country, according to the California regulator.