MetLife - Nurses Retirement Savings Plans
- 1994 0116 - Bloomberg - Policies Of Deception?, By Suzanne Woolley and Gail Degeorge -
- 1996 - LR - Derivative Actions by Policyholders on Behalf of Mutual Insurance Companies, by Theodore Allegaert, The University of Chicago Law Review, Vol. 63, No. 3 (Summer, 1996), pp. 1063-1097 (35 pages), Published By: The University of Chicago Law Review - 36p
- During the years 1990 through 1993, several of the largest domestic mutual insurance companies engaged in deceptive marketing and sales practices in their efforts to increase sales of their life insurance products. They sought to tap the mutual fund and savings bank markets by inducing individuals in specifically identified occupations who were likely to possess investment capital, but not investment acumen, to buy life insurance policies as "investment" or "retirement" plans.1 In doing so, agents styled themselves investment specialists, assiduously avoided using the word "insurance," and reaped a bonanza in commissions.2 Such misleading sales practices, however, were patently in violation of state consumer protection laws and insurance disclosure rules imposed by state insurance regulators.3
- 1 See Michael Quint, New Refunds for Misled MetLife Customers, NY Times D1, D1 (Dec 28, 1993) (discussing the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's involvement in such practices); - [link]
- Suzanne Woolley and Gail DeGeorge, Policies of Deception? Investigations of Misleading Sales Tactics Rock the Insurance Industry, Bus Week 24, 24-25 (Jan 17, 1994) ("Insurance agents [are] competing with banks, mutual funds and others.").
- 2 See Greg Steinmetz, Florida Widens Insurance-Sales Probe To New York Life, Possibly Prudential, Wal St J A3, A3 (Dec 29, 1993). These commissions can be up to twenty-seven times higher for whole life insurance policies than for more investment-like products such as annuity contracts. See Woolley and DeGeorge, Policies of Deception?, Bus Week at 24-25 (cited in note 1). - <WishList>
- 3 Steinmetz, Florida Widens Insurance-Sales Probe, Wal St J at A3 (cited in note 2);
- Greg Steinmetz, Met Life Got Caught; Others Sent Same Letter, Wall St J B1, B1 (Jan 6, 1994).