- 188
Met with an 85 year old female client today. I have managed her money for about 12 years and had not seen her in about 12 months. In 2008, She had 200k of NQ money free up and we put her in an Equitrsut EIA with a minimum guaranteed rate of 3%. Client had no need for income and simply wanted to accumulate wealth for death benefit. When Equitrust was bought by Guggenheim, I lost contact on the contract. Today, I was prepared to make a call with the client to Equitrust to check values, etc.. Client stated she no longer had that contract, that her health insurance agent tried to roll it into a life policy (not permitted) and when it was declined, he 1035 exchanged the policy into anothe EIA with Americo. There was still 7 years of surrender on the existing policy. I had her show me the new contract which showed a 2% minimum guarantee. In 17 years I have only recommended a client file a complaint one time against a broker who I discovered was churning money. He lost and she recovered. I do not want to be one of "those guys", but this was an unethical move. This agent did not even have the education to know you can not 1035 annuity money into a life contract. The client lost money and started another 10 year surrender. We all know why the agent did it, but what would you do in my position. I did not say anything other than "You understand you paid surrender charges". This one has really gotten under my skin. I am considering writing Americo first and give them 30 days to review the origional case. This is a clear case of the elderly being preyed upon and this type of agent gives us all a bad name. Your thoughts would be appreciated as I am having a moral dilema on how to proceed.
Last edited: