How Agents Trick You Into Buying Too Many Policies

Now my goal is to really call out these poachers and really help you identify them with these red flags and these frameworks to help you proceed. What I'm going to go ahead and do is share my screen. We're going to read this article. Okay, this, this is a stain, unfortunately, yet another stain in the life insurance industry on a company that I personally have a whole life insurance contract with which is called Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. I have a whole life with them. I have my dental plan with them, my little sister. I have a policy with Guardian for my little sister with, with this company. Many of my clients, those of you that are watching, own a whole life policy with, with Guardian. And so it's unfortunate to see people experience or go through a totally different experience than what you went through, what I went through as it relates to the positive of having a whole life insurance contract with Guardian or a dental plan or a convertible term or disability plan, whatever it may be. So let me go ahead and share my screen, give you some context here. So here's the article on ThinkAdvisor.com it says a life insurance. Financial advisors are rejecting the argument that they owe to fiduciary duty to 2 cash value life insurance policy buyers in New York State. Policy owners Andrew Mukamal, I believe, a stylist and Leona Walton, a model who uses the stage name Banks, sued Guardian Life. John Hancock's we got two companies. Guardian Life is the one that I own with John Hancock two advisors and the advisors firms over policy and purchases in a state court in New York City in November of 2023. So not too long ago they argued that the policies were unsuitable. Guardian asserts in a memorandum that it had no special relationship with the two and that they should have canceled the policies earlier if the policies were unsuitable. Now here's what I will say as it relates to life insurance companies as a whole like Guardian. They can come off pretty cold, no doubt. And I think the reason why is these are massive, gigantic, enormous life insurance company with billions and billions of assets under management and they have layers and layers and layers and layers and layers and layers of protection. So two people having a bad experience or with their, with their agent, they're going to let the dust settle with the agent, the agencies, the firm and the state. That's, that's just my opinion. When it comes to companies like say Guardian, John Hancock, MassMutual, sometimes they can come off a little bit cold when they're in these sorts of cases. That's, that's just my Opinion right. Could be wrong. But let's continue. Lawyers for the advisors, John and Michael and the Advisor firms make similar arguments in a separate pleading. So basically what's happening is the blame is being pushed from the hierarchy and I'm going to share with you that hierarchy on my whiteboard. But basically Guardian is pushing the blame to the what? The firm, the advisor firm, and then the advisor firm is pushing the blame to the agents. So ultimately it'll fall on the agent for this misconduct, this, this misrepresentation. So. Representatives for Guardian, John Walton declined to comment. Lawyers for the Advisor respond to request for a comment. Here we go, the policies. Walton was single, childless and 23 in 2020. Mukamang, her friend, was single, childless and 33. Walton bought six life policies with $87,506 in annual premium payments through the advisors in 2020 and 2021. Something is wrong here, ladies and gentlemen. As a licensed life insurance advisor agent for seven years now, I have never been under any circumstance, I have never seen any circumstance whatsoever on planet earth where it makes sense to sell one person, one individual, six life insurance policies. That's equivalent to me telling you to go open up six checking accounts at six different banks. That's the equivalent of me telling you to go up, open up six brokerage accounts at six different brokers. Why are we doing that? That doesn't make sense whatsoever. Okay. I have not been in a situation over the last seven years. I've worked with over a thousand families to this point. I've spoken to thousands of people. So far. It never makes sense. You cannot convince me that you should be buying six policies within a one year time frame. How come we couldn't design one policy to fit all six if that was the case? You know, want to know why? Commissions when set up in a deceptive way. You can get someone, an individual, to buy multiple policies and ladder them strategically. Where you, the agent, makes a ton of money in commissions. This is called laddering, where you can get them to purchase one policy and they borrow from that to fund the next, borrow from that to fund the next, and so on and so on. You, the agent, you get first year commissions on all those six policies, let's say. And then there's some elaborate strategy to help you basically fund those things. Okay, that is ridiculous. So we got 87,500 6,000 annual premiums due to the advisor in 2020 and 2021. So that's red flag number one. Why on earth are you buying six of anything? That's like buying six Louis Vuitton bags. What are we talking about? So there is an aspect where I get frustrated when the customer is not asking questions. This is like, and this is in the state of New York, so this would be pretty relevant. If you, if you live in New York, in one of the five boroughs, let's say Manhattan, Bronx, Queens. That's like saying you meet someone on the street and you're looking for direction and they say, come this way. And I'll, you got to take this alleyway right here. No lights, dim away from the crowd, and there's five or six people standing in a circle. Yeah. Just walk past them and you'll get to where you got to get to use your head. People like, this is frustrating, let me tell you. When I see customers get bamboozled like this, like a little bit is like, I get really upset at the customer for that. When it comes to your finances, okay, if you, if you, if you buy a toy and it's broken, you can return it at the store. When it comes to your money and you make investments, you're taking on risk. If you do not ask lots and lots of questions and go through a process, what are we doing? How charismatic can a person be, man, to just convince you to buy six policies? It doesn't make sense. So let's continue on. Gets me frustrated. Walton referred Mukamal to her advisors and he bought four policies with $188,067 in annual premium payments in 2020 and 2021. Probably because the agent told Walton about some sort of, maybe some rebating, some sort of referral program. Wouldn't doubt it. So here we got Walton buying $87,000 of premium. That's investment kind of money, folks. It's, it's odd. And then we got Mukamal, 33 years old, no kids, we don't know if she's married, but buying 188,000 in premiums, annual premiums between 2020 and 2021. Walton said the cost of the policies conflicted with her need to retire from modeling and start a business. Mukamal said the cost of his policies was much too high for his income level. Guardians pleading Guardian contends that the plaintiff's only significant claim against it is that it might be responsible for the wrongdoing of its agents. That's it. New York State does not recognize standalone claims for employer responsibility for agents, according to Guardian, because those agents are not actual employees of Guardian. They're 1099. They probably work for one of these multi level marketing agencies. Is what I can imagine. And if not, probably an independent agent agency. The advisors pleading attorneys for the advisor maintain case the buyer's remorse plaintiffs now argue that they did not need and could not afford the life insurance policies. This is what pisses me off. Why are we buying things we can't afford, right? I mean this is the common thread with Americans, this consumerism that we, that we suffer from. But then when it comes to purchasing financial products, we do it as well. We just bite off way more than we can chew. According to the advisors pleading, yet after. Yet a year after they purchased the aforementioned life insurance policies, plaintiffs purchased additional life insurance policies, which plaintiffs also argue that they did not need and could not afford. And then why is the agent not going through a financial analysis and helping them realize, hey, you don't need to buy this? Under New York state law, both Mukamal and Walton had a duty to read their life insurance policies and surrender them if they were displeased within 30 days of getting the policies the lawyers added. So this don't look good for Walton and Mukmal if I'm saying the person's name right. Doesn't look good. You know why? Because again, Guardian is providing a stack of papers this big with your contract and if you sign, you agree. It's like buying a house stack of papers that you have to look through over 100 plus pages. I guarantee you the agent didn't go through it.