Ep 14: $100K Fraud Case & What You Must Know About Term Life Insurance

Welcome to Fraud Facts and Life Insurance with Agent Verified, the podcast that dives into the wild world of life insurance gone wrong. Every week, we peel back the curtain on real cases of financial chaos and help you spot the red flag before it's too late. We'll share what went wrong, why it happened, and how to protect yourself by working with the right agent. Hey, let's face it. These stories might have ended very differently if only they'd use agentverified.com. hey. Hey. Welcome back to Fraud Facts and Life Insurance with Agent Verified. We are here.

We are back. It is a new week, and we are excited to be sharing with you guys some awesome stuff this week about how to protect yourself and. And how to help protect your. Your family as well. So we're going to dig right in. We heard about. We heard about an agent that allegedly did some fraudulent things. So let's check out what he did and what we can learn from that experience. All right, here we go.

Petersburg insurance agent is facing fraud charges, accused of exploiting older people for about $100,000. Right now, detectives are searching for any additional victims. St. Petersburg police arrested Charles Bryan Kleinmetz at his home Friday. Investigators believe Klein Metz met the victims at least 10 years ago and gained their trust as their insurance agent. Then, detectives say he sold them policies that weren't sufficient to provide care if they needed to be placed in assisted living facilities. One victim did need to go into assisted living, so investigators say Kleinmetz helped the victim's wife cash in hundreds of thousands of dollars on their life insur policy to pay for it, then further deepened his relationship with the wife, doing so much as to be considered her caretaker. Detectives then say over the course of two months, Kleinmetz got the woman who didn't know what she was doing to write him two checks for large sums of money. SPPD is now asking anyone with a similar experience to contact investigators. Katie Johnston for CW44 News at 10.

Oh, my word. There's so much in there to unpack, Javon. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. So he goes in. Okay, first of all, anytime you say that you're defrauding the elderly, like such a red flag, such a big no, no. Like what? Who hurt you as a child so that you. So that you would think, okay, I'm going to go defraud someone who has worked their whole life, and now it's there in their twilight years, wanting to enjoy the sunset of their life. Let me go steal their money, because I think they're an easy target, like.

And then you lose your record. Then you have your reputation. They trust you. You help them with a policy. And how do you end up being their caregiver?

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I mean, first of all, that is a major red flag. Like, I don't care how good a friend and how good a relationship you have with your life insurance agent, that is not your caretaker. The person that helps you manage your money should not then be given your money. Like, that just goes against everything that a life insurance with ethics and with integrity should stand for. Like, you know, one of the things that I always tell my clients, Javon, is I will not touch any of your money. Like, that's. That's one of the reasons. That's actually one of the reasons that I'm gonna be able to have such a long lasting, positive relationship with you is because you never give me money. Like, money never exchanges hands between you and me. Like, all the money goes to the life insurance company. The life insurance company is doing great. We'll let them pay me so you don't have to worry about how I get paid. You know, like, we let. We let the insurance company take care of that. And all I'm going to focus on in our relationship is how can I protect you. And so if that's not the kind of relationship that you have with your life insurance agent Red Flag, go find somebody else. Like, go to Agent Verified and find someone else in your stay that you can, that you trust because you shouldn't be touching. They. They shouldn't be touching any of your money or alluding to touching it. None of that.

Yeah, that's. That's nuts. Sorry. That helped to them. And if anyone has any similar cases with that agent, please reach out to those authorities. But man, oh, man. Sorry. Sorry. You guys got that? Wow. All right. Well, that was a lot.

That was some fraud, isn't it. I hate that there are people in our industry that do that. I hate that we, I mean, I'm, I'm glad that we're sharing about it, but it doesn't stink that if people.

We don't share. If we don't share, we don't tell them what to look out for. You know, People don't know.

People don't know. So they don't know. Well, let's. Let's share some other facts then, shall we? So just. Yeah, people don't know. Let's. Let's share something positive.

So, you know, last week I was sharing with the, you know, sharing with you.

The team.

Team is growing and.

Right.

You know, it's so, so awesome, you know, being in the industry for so long and you get the newbie, the new blood of the industry. And was talking with the team about term life insurance. Right.

Okay. I mean, that's like a foundational thing in the industry.

Yeah. Everyone here's term life, you see it on all the ad is always the 10$20 payments and super cheap. And they have its place, Right. Some companies, all they only do is term. But it was really like teaching, you know, the team, when is it good to have term? When is it good to upgrade from term insurance? And when are some times not to have term? Because I really do feel that there are times that you should not have term in your, in your arsenal. Right. So in my opinion, kind of. Let's talk about term. You know, my best analogy of term is like renting life insurance. Right. Term is you renting for a certain amount of time. Right. So term is just what it says is term. You're insured for a certain term, whether it's 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 25 years, 30 years. Hell, we even have some that go to 40 years now. Okay. So, yeah, so that's term. Well, why is term great? Term allows you to have a big policy for a certain amount of term. Okay. For a certain amount of time. But I have term on myself. Right. I have term because I have a mortgage. Right. So I know. Now term is great when it's attached to an asset. Right? Meaning you have a mortgage. I have a client, Betsy, that gets term policies when he finances a car because he knows if, if he dies before the car is paid for. Right. The problem with term comes in when people buy term for their final expenses. The problem with that is, do we know the day we're going to die?

We. We don't. We don't. That is not something that, that we can know, right?

So now you have a term policy that ends in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. And now you done paid so much into this policy that now you're like, I gotta die within this time.

That's a terrible way to think. We don't want you to think that way.

Right. And the alternative, if I don't die, then I what? I wasted all this money.

Burned out.

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All this money, right? So, well, I like how you said you attach it to an asset, like to a home, to a car, or even to like, hey, my kids are here in the home, I gotta make.

Sure they're fed and I'm responsible for my children until they're 21. So maybe I might get a big 20 year term policy at that time. But the problem with terms, if you're trying to use it for when you die, you don't know when that time is. That's not the right policy right now. They have all different kind of fancy terms. You have terms where you get all your premiums back and they're all out there, we have it all and if it makes sense, but just the bare basic terms. So I always tell my clients, if you're 20, in your 20s, 30s, kind of pushing 40s, terms are ideal. Yeah, ideal. But if your budget can allow, try to get permanent as soon as possible because people don't know this. Also, Betsy, terms are harder to qualify for. So you have one medication and knocks you out of term. So now you're stuck, right? So get term as young as possible. If you can afford it, lock in permanent as young as possible. But let's just talk about term. It's just best to get it as much as you can as young as possible, okay? And then as you get older, if health doesn't change, try to get into a permanent policy that does not have a time limit on it, okay? If you can do it in your 20s or 30s, you're golden. But term, just understand, it's like renting an apartment permanent. It's like when you buy the house. So I think term is not to be used. I don't think 50 and 60 year olds should have term. I think that it's just a waste of money. Even if you're healthy enough for it, it's just a waste.

Well, especially if someone's healthy for it. There's so many other good options that they can use that are still pretty cost effective but it's going to be that longer term coverage that they don't have to worry about it running out in the future.

Correct. So been just educating the team on that. You know, that's been, that's been fun. That's been fun. But that's my, my two cents on term. I have it. I can send you, show you the policy. I believe in it but it just must make sense. And term is, term is just designed to, if it happens, it happens but it's not. My goal is for my term to expire. You want to buy term so you know you can outlive it and not be upset. Hey, if you're tired of clocking in, getting underpaid or just want more control of your time and income, we're hiring at Spencer Financial Group. We train everyday people to earn real money. Helping families with life insurance from home, on your schedule and with leads provided. No cold calling, no chasing family and friends, just real support and a clear path to Success. Go to www.thespencerfinancialgroup.com and see what we're about. Let's build something real.

Absolutely. Like I would rather have, I mean I think about my husband, he's got term. I would rather have him at the end of 30 years.

Yeah.

You know, like he has another permanent policy but I don't ever want to have to use that term.

That would, exactly.

That would be devastating. Right. And now I love that. I think, I think that's so important for, you know, for agents to understand. And so that's actually great when I'm thinking about it. That's really what I'm seeing in our, our agency. I think I mentioned last time we, a couple, couple episodes ago we've got our Bay Shop mentor now really helping agents come in. And so that's one of the things that he really, you know, helps them understand that we need to educate agents for, or educate clients about is, you know, what is the difference between permanent and term life insurance. And so really explaining that going into it and so love to just kind of see the education even in our agency as they're learning about it and then able to convey that to clients and you know, what's that, you know what that's done for our agents, Joanne, which has been really cool. I've been having to do a lot of paperwork lately for my, I guess my, my staff has been having to do a lot of paperwork lately because, because we have been having so many agents get raises, you know, which I absolutely love. You know, we want to bring people in and they can, you know, they can get trained, they can be successful quickly. But one of the things that we want to help them do is get raises because then they can, you know, they can be doing the same work but be getting paid more for it. One of the things that I loved when I came into this industry, Javant, was you earn your own raises. Like, I'd never heard that before. Like, the only way that I could get more money as a teacher was if I stayed teaching in the same. In the same place, right? Or if I went and got a master's degree. But then my first four years, the state that I was in had a higher. Had a pay freeze. So I got paid the same amount for the first four years that I was teaching. I mean, so then imagine I come over here and it's like, yeah, you can earn a raise every two months actually in your first, when you first become an agent, now you can earn a raise every single, a 5% raise every single month for the first three months. And so now I've been like, processing, okay, hey, this person hit their race. Okay, this person hit their race. This person hit their race just because of how they're going out and protecting families. And so I'm like, man, I sure wish 22 year old Betsy knew that. That would have made things a lot easier. But man, that. So that's just kind of what's going on in our agency. You know, just seeing people get raises after raises and, you know, just celebrating them. I love seeing people do the exact same work. And now they're getting paid more for the money. Yeah, more money. And it's. And it's not, hey, I like you or I don't like you. Like, it's not based on what I think or I want. It's based on the work they're putting in. And so these people that come in and they're hungry and they're ready to make a difference and create a new life, a new legacy for their family. And, and they're doing it, man, I just, I love it. I love seeing it get. So gets. Gets me all fired up.

Yeah. Great job, bar team. Let's do it.

Let's do it.

All right, well, let's see who's our. Our latest.

Oh, all right, so we're gonna, we're gonna show you a little bit here and then you gotta come back next week and find out what happened. So here we go. Oh, we already see the title. It's not going to be pretty. Here we go.

Insurance agent accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from a state farm.

Agency and mobile has been arrested again.

Oh, gosh. All right, all right. Next week, next week we're going to.

Hear how they got arrested again. Oh, my gosh. Guys, go to agent verified. Choose your agent from agent verified. Check their reviews. Check all about them. This is why we have it. So come back next week. We'll find out what happened. In the meantime, head over to agentverified.com and we will see you next week. Betsy and Spencer out.

Thanks for listening to fraud facts and life insurance with agent verified. If this episode made you double check your policy or your agent, head over to agentverified.com to find someone you can trust. We'll be back next week with more fraud stories, facts and ways to protect what matters most. So stay smart, stay safe, and always verify your life insurance agent.