ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Annuities Are Complex, Long-Term Insurance Products
Expenses Add Up
Deceptive Sales Practices
Evans Law Firm, Inc. recommends against annuities for older consumers because they are expensive and complicated and because these contracts tie up a senior’s money for years. Contracts carry significant annual fees and impose surrender charges if you need your money back. Sales tactics can be deceptive and agents may fail to provide all the information you need to understand how a policy works. A deferred annuity policy by its own terms may be unsuitable and the sales tactics illegal. Deceptive sales tactics and the policies themselves may constitute violations of insurance laws and elder protections. Cal. Weld. & Inst. Code § 15610.30 (definition of financial elder abuse); Cal. Ins. § 790 et seq. (Unfair Insurance Practices Act). Senior victims may sue for damages and other relief including awards of attorneys’ fees and expenses for bringing your case. Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 15657.5. If you are over 60, live in San Francisco or elsewhere in the Bay Area or throughout the State of California and own a deferred annuity, call us today at 415-441-8669 (or toll free at 1-888-50EVANS) for a free review of your policy.
Complexity, Annual Expenses and Surrender Charges
Often deferred annuities run to 100 pages or more; sometimes closer to 150 pages with page after page of detailed actuarial tables. Consumers can be overwhelmed with this detail and complexity; indeed the selling agents are likely not to understand all the intricacies of these polies. Annual fees for administration, cost of insurance (so-called mortality rates) and rider fees can really add up and reduce any return on investment. Worse yet, deferred annuities impose surrender charges if you need your money back. These surrender charges can be as high as 15% and may continue for ten years or more. In addition to the surrender charges, you may face a tax bill on the amount surrendered at ordinary income tax rates. Surrenders also result in the loss of other policy benefits.
Deceptive Sales Tactics
Insurance agents may use questionable sales tactics at free lunch seminars, and during home visits, or provide misleading advertising materials. Watch for these red flags of dubious sales tactics:
- High-pressure sales pitch. If a particular group or agent has contacted you repeatedly, offering a “limited-time” deal that makes you uncomfortable or aggravated, trust your instincts and steer clear.
- Quick-change tactics. Skilled scam artists will try to prey on your “time fears.” They may try to convince you to change coverage quickly without giving you the opportunity to do adequate research.
- Unwilling or unable to prove credibility. A licensed agent will be more than willing to show adequate credentials.
- Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!
Contact Us
If you are over 60 and live in San Francisco or elsewhere in the Bay Area or State of California and have a deferred annuity or universal life insurance contract, we can review your contract for free. You can reach Ingrid M. Evans at Evans Law Firm, Inc. at (415) 441-8669, or toll free at 1-888-50EVANS or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>.
Some significant issuers and distributors of fixed, variable and fixed indexed deferred annuities in California are listed below. We are not in any way suggesting that any of these carriers or distributors has done anything wrong. The list is provided solely as a reference for our 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 International Group, Inc. (AIG)
American National Life Insurance Company
Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company
Athene Annuity and Life Company
Athene USA
Aviva Life Insurance Company
AXA Equitable Financial Services, LLC
AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company/AXA US
AXA Advisors, LLC
Brighthouse Financial, Inc./MetLife
EquiTrust Life Insurance Company
Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company
Genworth Financial, Inc.
Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company
Genworth Life Insurance Company
Guggenheim Partners, LLC
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
Metlife/Metropolitan Life Insurance Company/Brighthouse Financial, Inc.
Minnesota Life Insurance Company
Nationwide Investor Services Corporation (NISC)
Nationwide Life and Annuity Insurance Company
Nationwide Life Insurance Company
New York Life Insurance Company
Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company
Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company
Pacific Life & Annuity Company
Pacific Life Insurance Company
PacLife
Security Benefit Corporation
Security Benefit Group, Inc.
Security Benefit Life Insurance Company/Guggenheim Partners
Security Investors, LLC
Security of Denver Life Insurance Company/Voya
Transamerica Life Insurance Company
Voya Financial Advisors
Voya/Reliastar Life Insurance Company
World Financial Group Insurance Agency, Inc.
