thedrifter
10-30-06, 07:45 PM
October 30, 2006
Life insurance company settles, compensates Marines
By John Hoellwarth
Staff writer
American-Amicable Life Insurance Company has settled allegations of misleading sales practices by agreeing to compensate military personnel with cash refunds or upgrades to the cash value of the policies it sold to about 70,000 service members, according to a Corps-wide message released on Thursday.
Marines who bought either “Horizon Life” or “Wealth Builder” policies from American-Amicable or its subsidiaries, Pioneer American Insurance Company and Pioneer Security Life Insurance Company, between Jan. 1, 2000, and July 28, 2006, are encouraged to make sure these companies have their current address on file, according to MarAdmin message 514/06.
Lt. Col. Stephen Lyons, deputy head of the legal assistance branch at Marine Corps headquarters, said the terms of the settlement require company officials “to contact their policy holders and notify them of the cash payment or increased surrender value.”
But because these service members may have moved in the last six years, the companies might not have their current address, Lyons said.
The settlement came during an investigation into the insurance companies’ business practices by the U.S. Attorney’s office of the eastern district of Pennsylvania, the Texas Department of Insurance and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“The bottom line is that these particular policies had a low cash surrender value for what were significant premium payments,” Lyons said.
Lyons said there is no telling how many of the 70,000 affected service members are Marines.
He said the message is a heads up about the settlement for policy holders as well as commanders, who are now obliged to keep these companies from doing business on military installations for the next five years.
Ellie
Life insurance company settles, compensates Marines
By John Hoellwarth
Staff writer
American-Amicable Life Insurance Company has settled allegations of misleading sales practices by agreeing to compensate military personnel with cash refunds or upgrades to the cash value of the policies it sold to about 70,000 service members, according to a Corps-wide message released on Thursday.
Marines who bought either “Horizon Life” or “Wealth Builder” policies from American-Amicable or its subsidiaries, Pioneer American Insurance Company and Pioneer Security Life Insurance Company, between Jan. 1, 2000, and July 28, 2006, are encouraged to make sure these companies have their current address on file, according to MarAdmin message 514/06.
Lt. Col. Stephen Lyons, deputy head of the legal assistance branch at Marine Corps headquarters, said the terms of the settlement require company officials “to contact their policy holders and notify them of the cash payment or increased surrender value.”
But because these service members may have moved in the last six years, the companies might not have their current address, Lyons said.
The settlement came during an investigation into the insurance companies’ business practices by the U.S. Attorney’s office of the eastern district of Pennsylvania, the Texas Department of Insurance and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“The bottom line is that these particular policies had a low cash surrender value for what were significant premium payments,” Lyons said.
Lyons said there is no telling how many of the 70,000 affected service members are Marines.
He said the message is a heads up about the settlement for policy holders as well as commanders, who are now obliged to keep these companies from doing business on military installations for the next five years.
Ellie