The dubious practices employed by insurance agents can significantly eat up your resources and even as the government has been cracking down on mis-se...
The dubious practices employed by insurance agents can significantly eat up your resources and even as the government has been cracking down on mis-selling and other shady tactics,
it seems agents are getting bolder in their attempts to make a profit.
The most prevalent problem with mis-selling are the ones that involve Payment Protection Insurance but many other disreputable firms sell other types of financial products that are either unsuitable or illegal.
Variable Annuity
Annuities, for instance, have become a favorite target for the past few years. Annuities are designed to pay out a sum of money to the policy holder in regular increments, either quarterly, annually or biannually. Dishonest insurance agents typically scare seniors into taking out this form of policy by pointing out worst-case scenarios while omitting important details about the policy.
The thing about annuity, specifically variable annuity is that it actually costs more than mutual fund investments in the long run. And the benefits you receive won’t equal the amount that you have paid in premiums. Also, customers are tricked into thinking variable annuities are non-taxable. In actuality, the income your investment earns isn't taxed as long as you don’t withdraw. Once you do, you will be charged income tax rates.
Furthermore, the taxes imposed on your policy won’t go away even after you die so you actually leave your beneficiaries with financial burdens to deal with.
Affinity Fraud
There are also insurance scams that can be classified as affinity fraud, that is, when an insurance agent attempts to sell insurance products to a group of people he is connected to. He exploits this connection in order to make a sale. Connections can be in the form of family relations, racial relations, occupation and religion among others.
Affinity fraud isn't limited to insurance products alone. This can also include the sale of investment products such as the pyramid scheme, as well as the requesting of donations for a particular cause. In most cases, these donations aren’t really used for what they were supposed to be intended for, rather, the money is pocketed by the person who requested it.
Unauthorized Insurance
Insurance doesn’t even have to be sold by authorized representatives. There are many cases involving the sale of unauthorized insurance policies. These are “unauthorized” because the people selling them aren’t duly accredited by the State.
Non-admitted insurers usually ask for payment upfront then disappear once the money starts coming in. Pay close attention to the terms and conditions as they will usually be very lenient. For instance, the policy doesn’t have restrictions on pre-existing medical conditions.
These policies will usually offer low rates. While many legitimate insurance providers offer low premium rates, these numbers will usually play along industry averages. If the rate is lower than that, the chances are you are being scammed. Additionally, even if insurance providers offer low rates there will usually be a trade-off or a condition under which the low rate is enforceable. If there are no such provisions mentioned in the policy being offered to you, beware. As they say, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
