Agent - Company

  • 2021 0809 - Amicus Brief - PIABA - Public Investors Advocate Bar Association - 8p
  • 2022 0718 - Amicus - PIABA - Public Investors Advocate Bar Association - in Opposition to Request for Depublication of Williams v. Nat'l Western Life Ins. Co - 4p
  • 2021 0809 - Amicus Brief - PIABA - Public Investors Advocate Bar Association - 8p
    • The Williams decision raises two issues of critical importance to investors.
      • The first is whether insurance carriers may be held to be responsible for the acts of independent producers who transact business on behalf of multiple carriers.
      • The second is whether there is a private right of action under Cal. Insurance Code § 785, which imposes a duty of good faith and fair dealing upon insurers and insurance agents to prospective customers who are age 65 or older.
      • Our members have seen an explosion of cases in recent years in which independent insurance agents who market themselves as financial advisors and/or retirement planners recommend to prospective clients that they invest their retirement monies into costly and unsuitable insurance products which are not regulated as securities, including indexed annuities and indexed universal life insurance policies.
        • Insurance agents frequently recommend that prospective customers liquidate or exchange their existing IRA and/or 401(k) investments and use the proceeds to purchase indexed life insurance products.
  • 2022 0718 - Amicus - PIABA - Public Investors Advocate Bar Association - in Opposition to Request for Depublication of Williams v. Nat'l Western Life Ins. Co - 4p
    • Williams v. National Western Life Insurance Co., Case No. C090436, published 5/10/22 at 78 Cal. App.5th 500.
    • The Public Investors Advocate Bar Association ("PIABA") submits this letter as amicus curiae in opposition to National Western Life Insurance Company's ("NWL") request for depublication of the opinion in the above-referenced matter, Williams v. National Western Life Insurance Co., Case No. C090436, published 5/10/22 at 78 Cal. App.5th 500. ("Williams Opinion").
    • ⇒  In summary, the Williams Opinion makes the important clarification that life insurers are vicariously liable for the wrongdoing of their independent non-exclusive life insurance agents.
  • Another consideration is your field force.
    • How much control do they have over the business?
    • How loyal are they?
    • How much in-force business does each agent control?
  • The decision will be influenced by what impact your field force can have on you.
  • So even though the numbers can be generated to prove one set of assumptions, the assumed reaction of the field force must have an impact on your decision.
  • Commissions on internal relacements require two basic decisions:
    • do you want to encourage replacements;
    • and how much do you pay?
  • There are two possible items to pay commissions on:
    • the cash value rollover;
    • and the new premium.
  • A third question is whether or not you require the policyholder to roll available cash value into universal life in order to pay compensation.
  • You do not necessarily have to pay your agent a commission if he is going to take all your cash values and move them into his money market funds and start up new universal life plans.
  • My conclusion is that I would just as soon not have anyone touch my existing block of business.
  • Other companies have come to conclusions that they are better off replacing their existing blocks with universal life.
    • They claim that the profits are better by doing it.
  • In our case, it is a matter of determining the best approach to use without aggressively replacing our own business.

--  Gary P. Monnin, American Founders

1982 - SOA - Universal Life (rsa82v8n111), Society of Actuaries - 14p