ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER

Big Commissions on Unsuitable Annuity Exchanges

FINRA Cracking Down

Annuity salesman love to promote annuity exchanges, urging clients to swap one annuity for another. Big commissions incentivize salesmen for deals unsuitable to clients. For years, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has warned investors about the risks of annuity exchanges. Enforcement in the past year alone assessed a record $176 million in fines. Meanwhile, client arbitration claims involving all kinds of annuities grew by nearly 31% in 2016. If you are a loved one has been the victim of an unsuitable annuity purchase or exchange or are headed to a FINRA arbitration, contact the annuity and FINRA arbitration attorneys at Evans Law Firm (415)441-8669, and we can help. As California lawyers, we handle annuity and securities fraud cases and FINRA arbitrations here in California.

Seniors and young couples alike are targets of unscrupulous advisors and agents. In a recent case, a financial advisor, intent on pocketing big commissions, lured an elderly widow and a couple with three children into sets of unsuitable annuity exchanges where the only winner was the agent. Not only were the replacement annuities unsuitable to the clients, but the agent botched what could have been tax-free exchanges, so-called 1035 exchanges after the relevant tax code section. Both sets of clients incurred huge tax penalties. The penalties could have been completely avoided had the transactions been properly structured. The agent pocketed big commissions while the clients suffered needlessly.

Salesman often fail to disclose the tax implications of annuity surrenders. We at Evans Law Firm write often in this column about the dire tax consequences of botched annuity exchanges. We advise readers always to consult their tax professionals before doing anything when it comes to annuities. Take your time and always get a second, disinterested opinion on any purchase or exchange of annuities. While we are not tax lawyers, we can certainly help if you have suffered a tax loss as the result of a botched 1035 exchange or other poor or fraudulent annuity advice, or if you find yourself the victim of any kind of annuity fraud or headed to a FINRA arbitration.

Contact Us

If you or a loved one have suffered any kind of economic loss, including tax losses, as a result of the purchase or exchange of unsuitable annuities or are headed to a FINRA arbitration in Alameda County or anywhere in California, contact the Evans Law Firm annuities, financial elder abuse, FINRA, and fraud attorneys at (415) 441-8669, or by email at info@evanslaw.com. Our attorneys have experience with annuities, life insurance, and large insurance companies. We can help guide your case through a jury trial, FINRA arbitration, or toward an equitable settlement. We handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, qui tam and whistleblower law, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.
Some of the major annuity and life insurance providers in California are:

• Aviva/Athene/Accordia Life Insurance Company
• Transamerica Life Insurance Company
• John Hancock Life Insurance Company
• Bankers Life Insurance and Casualty company
• Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company
• Midland Life Insurance Company
• North American Company for Life and Health Insurance
• Pacific Life Insurance Company
• Prudential Life Insurance Company
• Genworth Life Insurance Company
• ING USA Annuity and Life Insurance Company
• Lincoln Benefit Life Company
• Metlife/Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
• Unum Life Insurance Company of America
• Voya/Reliastar Life Insurance Company