Rather than fueling it into a vendetta, I fuel that into protecting consumers, because I believe then and I believe today that these individuals are not acting in the consumers best interest.. Performance information may have changed since the time of publication. administrator or law firm. View Guidelines. The structured settlement company isnt bonded. We have affiliations in specific cases with attorneys licensed to practice in almost every state court in the U.S. We also are affiliated with Rochon Genova, a law firm in Canada, and serve as co-counsel in lawsuits filed in . Its not a good idea to get involved in pyramid schemes! Critics say that risk is not properly disclosed and is borne by the policyholder. It is presented If you dont have the stomach for investment losses, or dont have the patience for long-term investing, IULs probably arent for you. ", Although a class-action filing, the Li/Lui lawsuit names the agent along with the insurer. After being misled by some companies about the performance of IUL policies, some consumers have filed IUL lawsuits for false marketing. Privacy Policy | 30-2020-01153426-CU-BT-CXC, in the Superior Court of the State of California in and for Orange County. Policyholders from all states are invited to speak to these legal professionals, though attorneys are especially interested in speaking to Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Jersey consumers. Find out how we can be a team-player for your firm: Class Action Lawsuit regarding IUL multipliers, class action lawsuit filed in Orange County last week against Pacific Life. So, assuming clients with money pay premiums into an IUL, the question is what to do with that money as you wait to fund the IUL over a 5-, 7-, 10-year period. How To Find The Cheapest Travel Insurance, Tips for Buying Life Insurance for the First Time, What To Expect In Life Insurance Medical Exam, How To Choose A Life Insurance Beneficiary. A committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), which sets the standards for the state regulators who control insurance, has struggled for years to produce guidelines that states can adopt to ensure that the illustrations used by insurance agents to sell IULs reflect the risk buyers take. Click here to download an example output of an IUL vs. funding a 401(k) plan example for a 50 year old. 30-2020-01153426-CU-BT-CXC, in the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Orange. State court rules can differ. By submitting your comment and contact information, you agree to receive marketing emails from Top Class Actions regarding this and/or similar lawsuits or settlements, and/or to be contacted by an attorney or law firm to discuss the details of your potential case at no charge to you if you qualify. working with ClassAction.org are no longer investigating this matter. As the name implies, it takes yearly interest income from the bonds and mortgages underlying the policy and invests that interest in options on one or more indices. What has happened is exactly what I predicted would happen when I saw the structure nearly two years ago. Structured payment streams and IULs do NOT mix! document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Top Class Actions is a Proud Member of the American Bar Association, Various Trademarks held by their respective owners. The IUL Class Action Lawsuit is Hong Li v. Pacific Life Insurance Company, et al., Case No. The fact is, in a different (and better) economic environment, lessin premiums would be paid than originally planned, he notes. Aegon USA Inc., On her February 2020 quarterly statement, Li reportedly found that her policy sustained over $54,000 in losses between Oct. 26, 2019 and Jan. 25, 2020. Published April 17, 2023 9:54AM. First let me say that a 6th grader doing a few minutes worth of research on the internet should have come to the conclusion that the person behind this structured payment company was someone who you would NOT want to do business with. You can change these settings at any time. the content you have visited before, Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location, Advertising: Use information for tailored advertising with third parties, Advertising: Allow you to connect to social sites, Advertising: Identify device you are using. roccy@strategicmp.net, Why Every Advisor Should Have a 65 License. Eufy misled doorbell and camera users about how and where it stores recorded information. The Ciofolettis and Stospal allege Shurwest and Minnesota Life had to know that FIP was a scam. . This will be posted quickly, exposing the company and letting others see what happened to you! You must contact the However, these may be misrepresented or exaggerated by linking returns with the performance of a selected stock index such as that of the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The easiest example of an SPS is when someone receives a guaranteed payout from an annuity for X amount of years. Minn Life, Shurwest, and Others Sued in Bad IUL Sales Structure. InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. However, the plaintiffs argued Transamerica had breached its contract and acted in bad faith by raising charges as a pretext to avoid or offset its obligation to pay the guaranteed monthly interest. Top Class Actions is a legal news source Wilcox blames the low level of adoption on some tools on the fact that firms aren't spending enough time training advisors on the technology after they invest in it. By now you may have heard about a class action lawsuit filed in Orange County last week against Pacific Life. No. All Rights Reserved. According to the companys announcement, these new policies build on the structure of the first PDX policies with an added Enhanced Performance Factor Rider that allows policyholders more options for their policies. Although IUL policies can be a good idea for some people, it is important that insured individuals are properly informed of the risks surrounding the policies. The employee who is receiving $750 a month for the next several years could sell that payment stream for a lump sum. Get breaking news, exclusive stories, and money- making insights straight into your inbox. Did you or a family member purchase an Indexed Universal Life Policy (IUL) and are NOT receiving the returns or account value increases that were shown to you in marketing materials or sales illustrations? Some misrepresented policies may include PDX policies issued between February 2017 and early 2019. When a policyholder tries to surrender the policy, the insurer might keep the entire first years premium since it has already paid the commission costs to the agent who sold the policy. To read the complaint for the amended class action lawsuit, click here (the class was certified at the end of 2021). In 2020, a California woman took legal action by filing a class action lawsuit against Pacific Life Insurance Company. The most damning allegations in the new 2019 lawsuit are the targeting of Asian immigrants, and claim that 95% of sales within Premier Financial Alliance are affiliate purchases. The company's new policy on head count, made clear in its first-quarter earnings report, aligns with decisions made by Morgan Stanley and Bank of America. drug injury lawsuits and product liability lawsuits. Portfolio Analyzing for Non-Licensed Advisors. Under the terms of the settlement, Transamerica will pay into a common fund and absorb the attorneys fees. FIP products were notorious as early as 2015, when several state regulatory agencies investigated the FIP products and determined them to constitute illegal usurious loans, the lawsuit reads. In addition, most software is clunky and hard to use. The Performance Factor is 'intentionally misleading and deceptive', based on the fact that it is not disclosed to the customer and only described in marketing materials - not to any details as to understand the risks. Many of the policies were sold during a period of high interest rates, which allowed insurers to offer attractive guaranteed minimum interest rates. This settlement for approximately USD 88 million removes the uncertainty of this ongoing litigation for the company and its customers . your claim status, claim form or questions about when payments are Whats your clients retirement income style? Keep in mind that a wide range of consumer protections are in place for all life insurance customers, including a 10-day free look period after purchase, says Dolan. Using either one can get you sued. Class Action and Other Lawsuits What's the problem with this awesome sales concept? Others may be representing a higher growth rate of the stock index than what most financial experts would believe to be reasonable. This awful IUL sales story proves my point. Policy values in IULs are depressed for many years due to high up-front charges and high surrender fees, says Roth, adding that, These typically last for more than 10 years after the policy was taken out. Roth was recently part of a class action suit against Prudential Insurance Co. involving overbilling and improperly lapsing universal life insurance policies. Washington state regulators seek man facing felony insurance fraud charges, Wisconsin seeks policyholders of insolvent Time Insurance Co. products, Find out how you can submit Entire contents copyright 2022 by InsuranceNewsNet.com Inc. All rights reserved. What is an SPS? We want to help people make smart financial decisions How? Actions does not process claims and we cannot advise you on the What part of this structure looks like it is one that will protect our clients investments? Our number one goal was to get as much money as we could back to these policyholders as quickly as possible, Mr. Rosenfield said. Id love to get out of this while recovering as much as possible including the ridiculous surrender charge. content for publishing on our website. All Rights Reserved. Im guessing that the lawsuits I got my hands on are only three of many. Your email address will not be published. for informational purposes only. In the case of a sudden or unexpected death, life insurance can help cover debts and provide income for bereaved family members. This compensation comes from two main sources. Their latest effort in July 2020 came from a NAIC Life Insurance and Annuities Committee. According to Harvey Rosenfield, an attorney with Consumer Watchdog who represented the plaintiffs, Transamerica notified policyholders in 2015 that it was increasing charges by as much as 38% on universal life insurance packages originally sold in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They are led to believe the policy will earn 6% or more each year, and since they can borrow the money to pay the premiums at 3% or less, they think they will make at least 3%, far better than a bank can offerand on borrowed money. We have to rely on the employees to received their paychecks and then turn around and give it to the trust company. A federal judge in Richmond, Virginia, approved a $25 million universal life insurance class action at a fairness hearing Monday. the Pacific Discovery Xelerator IUL 2, InsuranceNewsNet reported. The PacLife IUL Class Action Lawsuit is Hong Li, et al. Let me explain how this IUL (Indexed Universal Life) sales structure worked. This meant some consumers entering retirement were forced to choose between losing the policy, which promised monthly interest payments of at least 5.5% annually, or paying the higher premiums, Mr. Rosenfield said. If you make a purchase using status of any class action settlement claim. PacLife misleadingly marketed their PDX life insurance policies in a way that concealed the policies risks while overstating their benefits, according to the plaintiff. He discussed the case last week at the American Council of Life Insurers' 2020 Annual Conference, conducted virtually. "It's interesting because of the complaints against the agent itself and is certainly one that we're watching and we'll continue to watch.". CHICAGO - Class action status has been granted in a lawsuit claiming the City of Chicago illegally issued millions of dollars in unlawful . Just because some agents misrepresent something does NOT make it a bad product. 2023 InvestmentNews LLC. For information on deleting the cookies, please consult your browsers help function. The plaintiffs claim they were misled about the costs of an IUL policy and how it works. GE Capital Assurance universal life price hikes may be unlawful and excessive, Creditor and debt collector calls class action lawsuit investigation, Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting, Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages, Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart, Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account, Essential: Remember language version you selected, Functionality: Remember social media settings, Functionality: Remember selected region and country, Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken, Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number, Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page, Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions, Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. Pacific Life Insurance Company describes their PDX policies as able to provide lifelong protection and supplemental retirement income through tax-free loans. The If you purchased a PacLife PDX Policy and are not satisfied with how your policy has performed, you may be entitled to compensation for yourself and for other policy owners by joining this Pacific Life Insurance class action lawsuit. In the IUL sales structure Im covering in this newsletter, the payment streams were coming from Federal employees (from their pension payments). document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_4" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Please note: Top Class Actions is not a settlement According to the companys announcement, these new policies build on the structure of the first PDX policies with an added Enhanced Performance Factor Rider that allows policyholders more options for their policies. If a market index performs poorly, interest rates will sharply fall meaning that a consumer may miss out on significant interest gains. This means that the cash value account linked to the policy allows the insured to borrow without tax consequences. Universal life insurance allow buyers to make flexible premium payments to fund policies with a relatively low amount of premiums. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. IULs are used by insurance companies to show favorable growth in sample policies account values in future years. September 22, 2020. Pacific Life Insurance Company Misleads Consumers Into Purchasing PDX IUL Policies, Alleges Class Action, GE Capital Assurance universal life price hikes may be unlawful and excessive, Creditor and debt collector calls class action lawsuit investigation. Attorneys are interested in speaking to policyholders who currently hold or previously held the PDX policies issued between 2017 and 2019 as these policyholders legal rights may be affected. According to court documents, Shurwest is proposing to pay claims through an arbitration process using the proceeds from three years of revenue, which it projects at about $6.14 million. For more than a decade, indexed universal life insurance (IUL) has been one of the life insurance industry's most profitable businesses. Even if a market index performs extremely well, not all of these gains will be translated into a policys interest rate. a similar story found in many other lawsuits, Economy hits millennials ability to build, transfer wealth, A year after crypto's crash, Philly Bitcoin believers hold on to hope, Jorgen Vik: Don't panic over Social Security rumors, reports. When the stock index performs well over the course of a year, the gains are credited to the policy based on a percentage rate but the policys interest rate may be much higher than those seen with normal life insurance policies. The attraction of the product rested on an assumption of perpetual 50% option profits, which the complaint describes as an indefensible assumption that is unsupportable, unsustainable and actuarially unreasonable.. This is ClassAction.org's current list of open lawsuits and investigations. New IUL premiums increased by 29% in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, according to LIMRA, an industry-funded financial research company. If your insurance company misrepresented the performance potential of your indexed universal life policy, you may be able to file an IUL lawsuit. Oh, if you want to download for FREEmy Bad Advisors book (I highly recommend it), click on the following link: http://strategicmp.net/bad-advisors-download. Genworth Life and Annuity Company agreed to pay the settlement. Should you use a premium deposit account at an insurance company? The three plaintiffs purchased Minnesota Life IUL products from Shurwest producers. The Life Product Review, "#239 | Filed: PacLife PDX Class Action Lawsuit", Published by Bobby Samuelson, Editor, on August 11, 2020, The Performance Factor was designed to circumvent. I hear through the grapevine that one of the largest IMOs in the industry when it comes to selling IULs (a different one than Shurwest) is in deep on this as well. You might be using an unsupported or outdated browser. For an IUL policy, the interest rate on the policys cash value is tied to a stock market index such as the S&P 500 or Nasdaq 100. To afford the budget for the money management involved in options trading and compensate the insurer and its agent, IUL policies can include significantly more fees and costs than an average life insurance policy. 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