NU Online News Service, May 17, 2:00 p.m.EDT--American International Group has revealed in aregulatory filing that it plans to pay in advance legal fees andother related costs its directors may incur for pendinglawsuits.

The New York-based insurance giant has been hit with a rain oflawsuits alleging management failure to prevent improper accountinghad diminished AIG stock value.

According to AIG's Securities and Exchange Commission filing,the insurer has agreed to "advancement of expenses," which couldinclude "attorneys' fees, actually and reasonably incurred by thedirector in the event that at any time he is or was a party or isthreatened to be made a party to any threatened, pending, orcompleted action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal,administrative or investigative."

AIG stated that it wishes to "obligate itself" to make paymentsto the fullest extent authorized by the general corporation law inadvance of the final disposition of any action, lawsuit orproceedings.

If an advancement of expenses is not made within 60 days afterreceiving a request by a director, "then the director may bring anaction against AIG to recover the unpaid amount of the claim," AIGstated.

The AIG filing listed 13 directors who entered into the paymentagreement on May 9. They are: M. Bernard Aidinoff, Pei-Yuan Chia,Marshall Cohen, William Cohen, Martin Feldstein, Ellen Futter,Stephen Hammerman, Carla Hills, Frank Hoenemeyer, RichardHolbrooke, George Miles Jr., Morris Offit and Frank Zarb.

Meanwhile, AIG was slapped with yet another class-actionlawsuit, this time from the San Francisco Employees' RetirementSystem (SFERS).

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera made an announcementthis week that he filed a class action on behalf of SFERS, chargingAIG with "egregious business malfeasance and violations of federalsecurities law."

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the SouthernDistrict of New York. It comes on the heels of another classaction, which was filed last week by Coral Springs, Fla.-based lawfirm Mager White & Goldstein LLP on behalf of beneficiaries ofthe AIG employees' 401(k) savings plan.