In the IUL sales structure Im covering in this newsletter, the payment streams were coming from Federal employees (from their pension payments). If you received a data breach notification or feel your Read More, Radius Health, Inc. Merger Terms May Have Harmed Stockholders An investigation into the fairness of the sale of Radius Health, Inc. (Radius or the Company) (NASDAQ: RDUS) to Gurnet Point Capital (Gurnet Point) and Patient Square Capital (Patient Square) has commenced. If you have purchased an IUL policy, you may be entitled to compensation by joining this Indexed Universal Life Insurance False Marketing lawsuit investigation. Recently, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Pacific Life regarding its popular and controversial PDX Index Universal Life (IUL) product. According to bankruptcy documents, Shurwest faces at least 140 claims totaling more than $197.5 million. And the insurance agent can make a commission on the sale of the structured payment and the target premium on the IUL is larger (winner winner chicken dinner)! Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information. On page 12 paragraph 60 it states that the Living Life IUL offered by LSW is far more expensive then other LSW IUL products. 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. Most IUL policies have a crediting floor of 0% to 1% which ensures that, even if a market consistently performs fully, the policy will grow by at least 0.5% or whichever floor is determined by the policys floor. Portfolio Analyzing for Non-Licensed Advisors. It took two years of hard-fought litigation, but we have accomplished our goal., (More: Transamerica sued for cost increases on universal life insurance contracts). administrator or law firm. On February 25, 2022 Aon detected a year-long data breach. We will be sure to monitor the situation and update you as we find out more. When policyholders live to an older age, these policies may help provide retirement income for aging seniors. An IUL class action lawsuit investigation is underway to probe into allegations that people who purchased Indexed Universal Life (IUL) insurance policies were misled into expecting unrealistic rates of return that comes after insurance companies presented used fabricated and false illustrations in marketing literature and sales material. expected to be mailed out. While not binding, this illustration serves as an educated guess as to what the policy will be worth in any given year. The answer to all of these very simple questions was NO! We have to rely on the employees to received their paychecks and then turn around and give it to the trust company. 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. The plaintiffs are represented by Bonnett Fairbourn Friedman & Balint, a Phoenix law firm specializing in life insurance sales practices. After these representations, Li reportedly opted into a IUL policy through PacLife. In August, a California woman Hong Li filed a class action lawsuit against Pacific Life Insurance and Sky Vision Insurance Agency for allegedly deceiving her and other consumers about the performance of their IUL policies. Life insurance companies that sell traditional policies like whole life insurance invest primarily in corporate bonds and government-backed mortgages where the money will be safe and generate a small, but reliable, annual return each year. 269-216-9978 This compensation comes from two main sources. drug injury lawsuits and product liability lawsuits. 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. 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. 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. 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. Related: Best Life Insurance Companies of 2023. No. It was filed by a law firm out of Phoenix with a long track record of class action suits in life insurance. They are complex products sold with false promises and deceptive marketing, says Birny Birnbaum, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Economic Justice. 3) I have a software company (OnPointe which had the best investment risk software in the industry (www.onpointeriskanalyzer.com)). Many of the policies were sold during a period of high interest rates, which allowed insurers to offer attractive guaranteed minimum interest rates. Please try again later. When someone purchases a life insurance policy, the insurance company may provide him or her with an illustration of the policys benefits. The insurance industry will be watching closely in the coming months as a class-action lawsuit over an indexed universal life policy plays out in a California courtroom. Whats your clients retirement income style? New IUL premiums increased by 29% in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, according to LIMRA, an industry-funded financial research company. Insurers often use low-cost loans in order to sell IULs, and have lenders lined up to offer loans to potential IUL buyers, he says. 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. Were optimistic that the court is going to grant Shurwests motion to dismiss the complaint.. According to the IUL class action lawsuit, Li would not have taken out an insurance policy if she knew that Xu used false and misleading illustrations about policy performance to induce her into purchasing the policy. Wed be happy to help you take a step in the right direction, fight this issue, and better enable you to join in on any potential consumer class action. All Rights Reserved. A reputable trust company isnt being used. Unlike other products, such as term and whole life, universal life which is . Federal requirements are set forth in Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Your email address will not be published. But the policy owner is likely to have torequalify as a borrower every three to five years, during which time the interest rate may go up while the cash value inside the policy could go down. What can be learned from this Class Action Lawsuit? The lawsuit addressed their IUL product - PDX. "The plaintiffs claim that the insurer created a product with a feature in it that is called a 'performance factor' that is designed to be within the letter, perhaps, of AG 49 while also aggressively illustrating a profit," Kimmerling explained. lawsuits can be viewedhere. Someone who is receiving annuity payments can choose to sell those payments to an investor for a lump sum. The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit tell a similar story found in many other lawsuits. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. The ACLIsDolan saysthe size of the premium depends on the returns on the options in the policy. Let me remind you PacLife is a A+ rated company with AM Best. On its face, it sort of sounds logical. A fresh lawsuit filed in Arizona bankruptcy court by Eleanor and Rocco Ciofoletti, of South Carolina, and Larry Stospal, of Texas, names both Shurwest and Minnesota Life as defendants. In addition to Consumer Watchdog, the case was prosecuted by attorneys from two law firms with a history of life insurance litigation: Bonnett Fairbourn Friedman & Balint and Shernoff Bidart Echeverria & Bentley. First you have to assume potential clients have a pot of money that could be used to fund an IUL policy for the sole purpose of borrowing from it tax-free in retirement. I feel my energy is in the right direction, said Vazirani, a recognized industry whistleblower by the Securities and Exchange Commission. 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. Nationwide privately settled a case in May relative to variable universal life insurance costs, and John Hancock Life Insurance Co. settled a lawsuit in July for $91.25 million. Insurance agents typically arent required to undergo the same training as stockbrokers to sell so-called derivative products such as options based on an underlying index like the S&P 500. Let me explain how this IUL (Indexed Universal Life) sales structure worked. And the insurance agent can make a commission on the sale of the structured payment and the target premium on the IUL is larger (winner winner chicken dinner)! Insurance companies are watching what happens with this lawsuit very carefully, and it could affect the industry as a whole. To read one of the original complaints from 2019, click here. She has no listed disciplinary actions and has been licensed as a life producer in California since 2008. Indexed universal life policies are unique forms of life insurance which tie interest rates to a market index such as the S&P 500 or Nasdaq 100. YorkBridge, Beacon Pointe's largest acquisition so far in 2023, was founded in 2016 by Carrie Gallaway and Andrew Stern. Learn more about the cookies we use. I was asked by an IMO owner to review the structure and give my opinion. Attorneys Go on and tell us about your poor consumer experience. The Los Angeles-based custodian's latest funding round was led by Insight Partners and Adam Street Partners. With the structure payments, you are actually increasing the premium that goes into the IUL! But if the COI exceeds the amount of the premiums, the deficit is debited from the cash value. Critics say insurers almost immediately got around the new rules by offering IUL bonuses and multipliers. Also, the new AG 49A permits the IUL illustration crediting rate to be 50 basis points higher than the policy loan rate, down from 100 basis points. Send us your story with as much detail as possible to fill out our investigation. Your email address will not be published. Axa Equitable Life Insurance and Lincoln National Corp. are also facing litigation for raising the costs of their universal life policies. The IMO filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Aug. 31, 2021, all while steadfastly maintaining that company executives knew nothing about a pension fraud scheme adapted to hundreds of indexed universal life sales. Although IUL policies have the potential for high rates of growth, the policies also have the risk of no growth if a stock market index performs fully. PLEASE EMAIL ME IMMEDIATELY TO SET UP A CALL. The IUL sales structure I will talk about in this newsletter I saw a few years ago. Get breaking news, exclusive stories, and money- making insights straight into your inbox. Their only requirement is to be licensed by the state as an insurance agent. 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.. A period of high interest rates, which allowed insurers to offer attractive guaranteed minimum interest rates we be... 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