ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
How Insurance Agents Financially Exploit Seniors
Unscrupulous insurance agents can really wreak havoc on a senior’s finances. Agents prey on seniors’ anxiety over income security in a drive to sell commission-generating annuities and life insurance, including whole life, universal and equity-indexed policies. In that drive for commissions, agents may pressure seniors into sales at free lunch seminars, use a false pretext to approach a senior with insurance products, make unannounced home visits, sell unsuitable policies, or recommend replacement of a senior’s existing annuity or life insurance at a loss to the elder consumer. Whatever the misconduct, the resulting economic harm can be devastating; beware any recommendations of annuities or whole, universal or equity-indexed life insurance if you are a senior. The Alameda County financial elder abuse lawyers at Evans Law Firm, Inc. represent clients harmed as the result of insurance agents who financially exploit seniors by selling them these products. If you or a senior loved one has been sold an inappropriate life insurance or annuity policy or has been a victim of undue influence, fraudulent concealment of information, securities fraud or any form of financial elder abuse, contact our attorneys today at (415) 441-8669 and we can help.
Recommendations to replace any existing annuities or whole life, universal or equity-indexed life insurance policies you have are particularly bad. Whenever an agent convinces you to exchange an existing annuity or life insurance policy for a new one, the agent pockets a big commission on the new policy. The new policy ties up your money for an even longer time because the surrender period during which you’re penalized for withdrawals resets under a new policy. The surrender of your old policy incurs surrender penalties and potential tax liability.
Inappropriate sales tactics and sales, exchanges and charges violate insurance code protections for seniors and may constitute a taking of your money in violation of California financial elder abuse protections. See Calif. Welf. & Inst. Code § 15610.30(a) (broadly defining what constitutes financial elder abuse). Our Alameda County attorneys handle financial elder abuse cases every day. Our lawyers know what constitutes financial elder abuse. We know the legal standards of conduct expected of insurance agents, advisors and carriers and the disclosures they must make under California law. California law provides restitution, extra damages, and awards of attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in bringing a successful action for financial elder abuse. Our lawyers can help you get those remedies if you’ve been financially exploited.
Contact Us
If you are the victim of wrongdoing by an insurance agent we at Evans Law Firm can help you hold that agent to the highest standard of conduct the law prescribes. If you or a loved one has been a victim of a breach of fiduciary duty, annuity or securities fraud or financial elder abuse in Alameda County or elsewhere in California, contact Ingrid M. Evans and our other financial elder abuse and annuities attorneys at (415) 441-8669, or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. Our attorneys have experience with complex securities cases, arbitrations, and mediations; and complicated financial contracts and large insurance companies. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We also handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, other types of qui tam and whistleblower cases, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.
Some of the leading providers and distributors of whole life, universal life, and equity-indexed life insurance and annuities in California are listed below. We are not in any way suggesting that any of these carriers or distributors has committed wrongdoing. The list is provided solely as a reference for readers.
AIG/American General Life Insurance Company
Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America
American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company
American General Life Insurance Company/AIG
American National Life Insurance Company
Ameriprise Financial/RiverSource Life Insurance Company
Ameriprise Financial/Securities America, Inc.
Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company
Athene Annuity and Life Company
Athene USA
Aviva Life Insurance Company
AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company/AXA US
Bankers Life Insurance and Casualty Company
Berkshire Hathaway Group
Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company of Nebraska
Brighthouse Financial, Inc./MetLife
Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.
Crump Life Insurance Services, Inc.
CUNA Mutual Group/CMFG Life Insurance Company
Delaware Life Insurance Company
EquiTrust Life Insurance Company
Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company
Forethought Life Insurance Company/Global Atlantic Financial Group
Genworth Financial, Inc.
Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company
Genworth Life Insurance Company
Global Atlantic Financial Group/Forethought Life Insurance Company
Guardian Life Insurance Company
Guggenheim Partners/Security Benefit Life Insurance Company
ING USA Annuity and Life Insurance Company
Jackson National Life Insurance Company
John Hancock Life Insurance Company
Lincoln Benefit Life Company
Lincoln Financial Group
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company
Merrill Lynch Life Agency Inc.
Metlife/Metropolitan Life Insurance Company/Brighthouse Financial, Inc.
Minnesota Life Insurance Company
National Life Group
National Life Insurance Company/Equity Services, Inc.
National Western Life Insurance Company
Nationwide Life Insurance Company
New York Life Insurance Company
North American Company for Life and Health Insurance
Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company
Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company
Oxford Life Insurance Company
Pacific Life Insurance Company
Principal Financial Group
Prudential Life Insurance Company
Raymond James Insurance Group
Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company/Tokio Marine Group
RiverSource Life Insurance Company/Ameriprise Financial
Securities America, Inc./Ameriprise Financial
Security Benefit Group, Inc.
Security Benefit Life Insurance Company/Guggenheim Partners
Security Investors, LLC
The Standard Life Insurance Company
Symetra Financial Corporation
Symetra Life Insurance Company
Transamerica Life Insurance Company
Unum Life Insurance Company of America
USAA Life Insurance Company
Voya/Reliastar Life Insurance Company
Wells Fargo Advisors
Western & Southern Financial Group
The Western & Southern Life Insurance Company
World Financial Group Insurance Agency, Inc.
