April 11, 2005
AMERUS LIFE INSURANCE GROUP & AFFILIATES NAMED IN NATIONAL CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT
Marketing of Annuities to Senior Citizens Challenged
A national class-action was filed in federal court today by plaintiffs Edward A. Inferrera and his wife Gloria A. Inferrera on behalf of themselves and all other senior citizens sixty-five and older against AmerUs Group Co., AmerUs Life Insurance Company, American Investor Life Insurance Company Inc., and their affiliates AmerUs Annuity Group and Family First Insurance Services.
The class action complaint alleges that AmerUs Group Co., a publicly traded company on the New York Stock exchange (AMH), AmerUs Life and its affiliates' sales practices are in violation of the federal Racketeering Influence Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO; and California's elder abuse laws.
According to the complaint, the companies designed a scheme to exploit senior citizens by the deceptive marketing of estate planning services, commonly call "trust mills", to obtain the financial information of seniors in order to target them as purchasers of deferred annuities. The complaint further alleges that in many cases the annuities have maturity dates well beyond the senior's life expectancy and have significant surrender charges, even on death benefits–which most seniors did not understand. The annuities had huge up-front premiums, in some cases over $100,000, which in many cases represented significant portions of the seniors' life savings.
William Shernoff, a nationally-recognized attorney in representing insurance policyholders–of Shernoff Bidart & Darras in Claremont, California and his co-counsel Howard Finkelstein and Mark Knutson of Finkelstein & Krinsk in San Diego, California; represent plaintiffs Edward and Gloria Inferrera, who were 78 and 74 years of age, respectively, when they were sold two AmerUs Life Insurance Company deferred annuities. Both annuities sold to the Inferreras are not scheduled to mature until 2029; well beyond their respective actuarial life expectancies at the time of sale.
Recently, the California Attorney General filed a similar action on behalf of California seniors alleging that living trust mills tricked seniors into using retirement assets to purchase annuities.
