Genworth Life Insurance Company

Most people know it is important to have life insurance. Insurance coverage can be purchased either through an employer or company, or by using an outside insurance provider like Genworth Life Insurance Company. Having a life insurance policy can give you a sense of financial stability and control over circumstances that are beyond your control, particularly with respect to what your family and loved ones will do after you die. But it is equally important to have a plan in place for other uncontrollable circumstances as well.

This is where long-term care insurance comes into play in your financial planning. If you are injured or ill and require on-going medical care, your savings account may not cover the extent of your needs. Long-term care is expensive and changes in medical status may make it harder for you to work, make decisions, or maintain your current lifestyle. Having a long-term care insurance policy in place can help ease the burden of hospital payments, medical procedures and even in-home help, if you need it.

Just as when you purchase a life insurance policy, you are purchasing a long-term care policy without knowing what, exactly, you will need if you have to utilize the policy. Your insurance policy, therefore, must cover a whole host of speculated, but unknown variables, including provisions for a scenario in which you need long-term care indefinitely. In these situations, fraud is hard to identify because you do not know what you need or what tricks and/or deceptions your insurance carrier may be scheming—that is, until you are injured or sick and have to fight for your benefits.

Fraudulent Policies

Your reliance on your life and long-term care insurance policies puts you in a vulnerable position and California life insurance fraud lawyers warn consumers that there are many insurance companies who can take advantage of that vulnerability. A fraudulent insurance policy can go undetected for years, while the policyholder continues to make payments into it. We have been contacted by clients who realize after paying their policy for 20-30 years that the cash value of the policy is much less than the amount of premiums they paid into it. In other words, they may have been better off if they had invested their money in a safe financial investment.

Consumers should be aware of the policy terms and contract agreements before they sign anything, fraud attorneys say, and they should be wary of “special deals” or changes to their policy. Your life insurance and long-term care policies may be the only way you can take care of your loved ones even after your death, so it is critical that your needs and financial expectations are fulfilled by your insurance provider including Genworth Life Insurance Company.

Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company

As annuities increase in popularity, many insurance companies are reaping the benefits. The commission for a mutual fund is in the 2-4 percent range, while the commission for a variable annuity is significantly higher—7-10 percent. The stockbroker or agent who sells an annuity is earning much more and receiving additional financial perks over the course of the policy’s timeframe.

Although it left the market in 2011, Genworth Life Insurance Co. had been a major, nationwide provider of annuities to seniors. Several lawsuits have been filed against Genworth, alleging that it failed to disclose fully certain terms to elderly customers.

A recent class action suit in Washington state alleging that Genworth Life Insurance sales representatives and independent contractors may have misrepresented the risks inherent to the purchase of certain annuities, misrepresented or failed to disclose facts that would have been material to the customers’ decision whether to purchase the annuities, and failed to determine whether the annuities in question were appropriate investments for the individual investors.

For years, Genworth Life Insurance sold to elderly clients what are known as life-only single premium intermediate annuities (“LOSPIA”). The client would pay a substantial premium to purchase the LOSPIA, and in return would receive a periodic payment for the remainder of his or her life. LOSPIAs provide a good return if the customer outlives his or her life expectancy. However, the LOSPIA makes no further payments to the customer’s estate upon his or her death. This often makes LOSPIAs a poor investment choice for senior citizens over age 85.

In one illustrative case, Genworth Life Insurance issued LOSPIA annuities costing $155,000 to a 91-year-old man. By the time he died less than three years later, he had received only $60,000 in periodic payments from the annuity, and his estate received no compensation for the remaining unpaid principal.

Among other allegations, the class action claimed Genworth Life Insurance had committed objectionable practices including: failure to disclose or discuss mortality tables on which the LOSPIA pricing was based, failure to discuss other annuity products that might have been more suitable, misrepresentations about tax advantages and guaranteed payouts, failing to perform “suitability analyses:” for each class member, not checking to determine whether annuitants were using borrowed funds to purchase LOSPIAs, and failing to adhere to a set of voluntary ethical standards.  

Fraud Victims Should Contact an Attorney

Evans Law Firm, Inc. was not involved in this case but will investigate your claims for annuities sold by Genworth Life Insurance Company.

If you or a loved one has purchased an annuity from Genworth Life Insurance, please contact Evans Law Firm, Inc. today for a free and confidential evaluation of your rights. We can be reached by email at info@evanslaw.com, or by telephone at (888) 503-8267 or (415) 441-8669.