Showing posts with label LSW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LSW. Show all posts

Friday, September 06, 2019

Don't Fall For This 403(b) "Match" Scam

Several private universities are being sued for overcharging participants, the companies offered were low-cost providers like TIAA, Fidelity and Vanguard...yet they are still being sued.

Meanwhile, in the public K-12 market we have companies like the one featured in the ad to the left literally lying to participants and potential participants about being eligible for an employer match. They represent companies like Midland National and Life of the Southwest, companies that are not in participants best interest.

I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. They don't call the public K-12 market the Wild West for nothing (I wrote a book for advisors titled "Wild West: Providing Fiduciary Advice to Public School Employees").


If you are a teacher and you receive the e-mail featured above, would you not think that your school district is offering a match of 5% if you begin contributing to your employer's 403(b)? I know that's how I would read it if I weren't in the financial services business.

Lucky for you, I am in the biz and can help you decipher this scam.

First, it's extremely unlikely the school district is offering any match and it's also unlikely they have endorsed or authorized the company featured to send the e-mail (if they did, they are opening themselves to significant liability). What is really going on?

It's actually pretty simple, this is an insurance agent using (in my opinion) underhanded and dishonest methods to lure unsuspecting teachers into buying high commission, retail annuity products that are likely better for the agent selling them than they are for the actual purchaser.

The participant doesn't actually get a "match", instead they get a "bonus" paid by the insurance company for every dollar placed in the annuity product. This "bonus" doesn't come for free, you pay for it in one way or another. One way a participant might pay for the bonus is through a longer surrender period on contributions, many annuity companies will add five years to the policy's surrender period and increase the surrender charge. This allows the annuity company to keep your money longer and make up for paying the bonus by underpaying interest for an additional number of years. Another way of paying for the cost of the bonus is to pull the strings of the policy to manipulate the rate paid so that it is lower than a comparable policy.

There is no free lunch, an annuity company is NOT going to give you free money. Every dollar they "give" you will be taken away in some form or fashion.

If you receive an advertisement similar to the one above you should ignore it. Better yet forward it to the state insurance commission.

Scott Dauenhauer, CFP, MPAS, AIF


Hat Tip to Don St. Clair for sending me the e-mail.
Are you 403(b) Wise? 403bwise.org is the place on the internet to learn, advocate and build community.

More 403(b) Vendor Shenanigans & Trips...Those Amazing Trips

This past week I've come across several instances of what I consider improper marketing efforts by insurance agents for 403(b) vendors. 

As best I can tell, this week it's LSW and Midland, two of the worst 403(b) vendors in the industry in my opinion. 

I also found where LSW is having their Conference of Champions trip and have posted the details.

LSW Agent Violated District Rules?

The first issue is with an LSW representative, as reported to me:

The email was originally sent out to our principal (name redacted). In the email it states that he (the LSW insurance agent/salesperson) had:
"nominated our school for our 'sports equipment giveaway' program on numerous occasions in the past." 
It goes on to state:
"As you know, we are (an) approved 403(b) advisors with the district as well as the TPA (third party administrator) and we conduct retirement updates at numerous schools functions including staff/professional development meetings." 
The letter goes on to state that:
"we have 2 sets of sports equipment available to be donated in March that are being funded by one of our agents out of his own pockets with no corporate money involved."
So what's the problem? Several.

First, the rep is essentially bribing the school official with sports equipment in order to gain a quid pro quo of access to "staff/professional development meetings." This is unethical in my opinion. If you want to give the school equipment, just give it.

The bigger problem is that in this particular school district agents are prohibited from being on campus for any reason (other than if their child attends, of course). Yet the rep is attempting to gain access even though the rep new it was not allowed. I know the rep knew it wasn't allowed because the rep is listed as an LSW rep on the active agent list that LAUSD collects.

It gets worse. The agent represents that he is an "approved 403(b) advisor(s) with the district as well as the TPA". This is a misleading claim. The district doesn't approve agents and the Third Party Administrator doesn't either. The district simply makes all agents and brokers who sell products complete information so that they can track who is selling in the district and ensure they are following the rules. The list has not been vetted. You can read all the documents that LAUSD requires agents to sign here. LAUSD has not approved this salesperson in any fashion, simply required that they adhere to LAUSDs guideline if they wanted to sell in the district, to indicate otherwise seems quite dishonest to me.

To give you an idea of what the solicitation agreement entails, here are a few of the key points:


SECTION I – RULES AND PROCEDURES
  1. Agent must sign the Rules of Solicitation Agreement and file with TSA Consulting Group, Inc., Plan Administrator, prior to working with employees of Los Angeles Unified School District.
  2. Any Agent working in the district must be listed as an agent with at least one of the companies on the authorized investment provider list.
  3. Agent is responsible for updating TSA Consulting Group Inc. of any changes in company/companies represented and any change in business contact information such as address, email and phone contact.
  4. No agent may solicit employees or distribute promotional materials for the purpose of obtaining contracts for taxsheltered annuities, 403(b) voluntary retirement savings or similar benefits on District property.
  5. Agents may not ask employees to utilize District facilities (fax machines/telephones) to arrange appointments or send materials related to 403(b) voluntary retirement accounts.
  6. Agents are not permitted to meet with employees on District property for any reason related to the soliciting or servicing of an employee 403(b) TaxSheltered Annuity.
  7. Interference in any way with employees daily period of service will not be tolerated.
  8. Agents may not for any reason signin to the ART System for, or on behalf of the employee, to process any
    transaction or make changes to Salary Reduction Agreement information. Accessing ART utilizing someone else’s credentials is considered fraudulent activity and is grounds for immediate termination. 
The agent is listed with LAUSD which indicates he signed this agreement (note: I've not independently verified he signed the agreement, this is an assumption based on the process in place to get on the agent provider list). Notice Rules 4 - 7....the above e-mail seems to be looking to violate all of those rules. It's going to be hard to claim ignorance.

The second solicitation issue happened in the same city and same district and the rep involved is also listed several times on the districts agent provider list.

LSW/Midland Appointed Agent Represents As CalSTRS?

In this situation an agent who is appointed with LSW and Midland (and who has won awards apparently with both for selling their products) represents himself as being affiliated with CalSTRS, a common trick of insurance agents selling 403(b) products.

I don't know how the individual received the document below, but you can see that it asks questions related to the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) pension plan. But more importantly, the e-mail address literally starts with "calstrs". I've blocked out any identifying information.

This is another case of misleading solicitation. Even if the agents didn't mean to mislead, he used the name of CalSTRS in his e-mail address...that's a no-no. The agent brags on his website that "Since 2012 (name of agent) has reached the President’s and Platinum club levels with several nationally recognized Premier Retirement Planning and Insurance Carriers." If you are not aware, this is not a trait a consumer should look for in a trusted advisor - it simply means he sold enough of that company's products to achieve a certain level (which normally leads to trips similar to the ones below).

Bottomline - solicitation by reps of insurance companies that are bad for consumers continue to be a problem. Be careful out there.

Just so you understand what is driving these solicitations, I'm including below the trips that these types of agents might qualify for if they submit enough business to National Life Group/Life of the Southwest:






It's time this kind of stuff stopped.

Scott Dauenhauer, CFP, MPAS, AIF

Are you 403(b) Wise? 403bwise.org is the place on the internet to learn, advocate and build community.




Bermuda, Ireland, Florida or Argentina - Just Sell Enough LSW Annuities

Want to goto Bermuda in 2018? Just become an indexed annuity salesperson who contracts with the National Life Group (also known as Life of the Southwest or LSW) and sell enough of their products and you could be heading there in business class!

Perhaps you want to stay in the United States, Naples, Florida at the Ritz-Carlton was a destination for 2017.

Want to go to Ireland or maybe Argentina? No worries, LSW has options for those as well. Again, you only need to sacrifice your soul and sell their surrender charge laden annuity and insurance products to unsuspecting people, including hard working school employees and you too can board business class.

The 403(b) and 457(b) markets are littered with companies and insurance agents selling indexed annuity products to teachers and other school employees who are not informed enough to know what they are purchasing. These products often come with 10 year or longer surrender periods with surrender charges exceeding 10%.

Don't believe me...see for yourself:

These disgusting incentives should be not be legal. Scott Dauenhauer, CFP, MPAS, AIF

Are you 403(b) Wise? 403bwise.org is the place on the internet to learn, advocate and build community.


Look Out Teachers, LSW Has You In Its Crosshairs

I find all sorts of interesting things on the internet these days. Sometimes they are sent to me in my e-mail inbox, but the item I found and posted below is very different than incentive trips I've seen in the past. What's so different you ask? The following phrase:

"Sales in Individual Retirement Accounts or ERISA governed qualified plans paid on or after June 9, 2017 will not count towards the qualification criteria established for certain incentives." 
This means that insurance agents attempting to sell National Life Group insurance products AND who want to earn a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina can only qualify for that trip by selling the products outside of IRAs and 401(k) plans (also ERISA 403(b)s).

This puts the crosshairs on two groups of people, those with assets outside of qualified (ERISA) plans (usually senior citizens) and public school employees through their 403(b) and/or 457(b). As I've written in the past, government 403(b) plans are not subject to ERISA and thus NOT subject to the new Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule. Teachers are quite literally not protected. Worse, they are among a shrinking group of people who aren't...which puts them directly in the crosshairs of insurance agents who need to make their quotas.

Be careful out there educators, never work with anyone who is not a fiduciary 100% of the time and who is not willing to put that in writing.



Are you 403(b) Wise? 403bwise.org is the place on the internet to learn, advocate and build community.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Maui, Cabo or Sicily...Choose Your Annuity Incentive!


Ever wonder what's behind those annuity recommendations? Here's a taste.

I've posted a few of the potential trips that annuity producers can take this year and next for selling fixed annuities.

Do you want to goto Maui? Just sell $3.5 million in annuity premium and you'll get a stay at the Ritz-Carlton! Even better, if you sell enough you could take a trip across to the next island, Lanai for three more days. Here is a video from American Equity about what an agent can expect.



You can also check out their website:

http://marketingcenter.american-equity.com/aspx/Campaign.aspx?n=32&c=10

Perhaps Maui and Lanai are to far away, maybe you'd like something similar, but a little closer to home and with an advantageous exchange rate. Los Cabos, Mexico is behind door number 2! Amernican National will send you and a guest to The One and Only Pamilla resort.

Perhaps beach destinations aren't up your ally. Maybe you want a little more culture. After all, whenever one things of an annuity salesperson they think "cultured"! Well, LSW (National Life Group) has all the culture you can handle with a trip to Sicily.
Next time someone is pitching you an annuity, ask them about their compensation and what trips it might qualify them for (then watch their face turn white). This shit needs to stop.

These companies must be good because they have America or National in there name...good grief.

Scott Dauenhauer, CFP, MPAS, AIF

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

It's Time For The SEC To Regulate Indexed Annuities

Indexed Annuities Need More Regulation
Indexed Annuities are big business and are the path to big profits, yet they are essentially unregulated and sold by people who have no requirement to put their client's interest ahead of their own. It's time that Indexed Annuities and the people who sell them become properly regulated.


Thursday, January 14, 2016

Confessions of an Equity Indexed Annuity Salesperson?

Response letters to potential regulatory changes can be a gold mine. I was recently reviewing some old responses to an SEC rule that would bring Equity Indexed Annuities (EIA) under the umbrella of the SEC and require insurance agents who sell them to be registered (Registered Reps of a FINRA Broker/Dealer).

One agent for a company called #ValuTeachers wrote a response and I'm excerpting it below. Please consider that if I were to write a parody response letter to the SEC (posing as an insurance agent selling these products) it probably wouldn't look much different. The entire letter is at the end.

Claim/Statement #1

"To make the equity index annuity a security product would damage the ability of people who need this particular product to receive a fair representation of the product."

My Response:

Two things, first, no one NEEDS an EIA product, no one. Second, a sales agent that is highly motivated to sell a particular product because of its high commissions and potential luxury vacation rewards is NOT capable of providing a "fair representation" of anything. If this agent is truly concerned about representing any product fairly, he should be lobbying for the end to commissions in exchange for product sales.


Claim/Statement #2

"It would first make thousands of current Life insurance representatives have to get securities licensed to continue selling the product. Most will not do so leaving the current clients that they have stranded. This rule has not been thought through with the clients' best interest in mind. If so the SEC would realize the need to keep this an insurance product which is already being regulated by the insurance departments in the various states. If we force thousands of life insurance representatives to get licensed what if they choose not to."

My Response:

An insurance agent who advises clients on what to do with their investments, including talking about the stock market, should certainly be regulated more than the state insurance commission regulates. 

This agent claims that if forced to register as a representative or an advisor, most insurance agents would rather abandon their clients than register. What exactly does this say about such agent or agents in general (I know a lot of insurance agents who are good people and would never abandon their clients)? It says they are lazy and really don't care about their client (note, I don't believe all insurance agents are lazy, just ones that agree with this particular agent). If they really cared, they'd not abandon their clients over a specific product requirement. I find it ironic that this agent believes the SEC should have "the client's best interest in mind" but that the agent shouldn't be required to put the client's best interest first...notice he is not arguing for a fiduciary standard. If thousands of insurance agents choose not to register in order to sell EIAs, fewer EIAs will be sold and more investors/savers will have been protected.


Claim/Statement #3

"Many questions come to my attention in thinking of the client. 1. Are current insurance agents out of compliance for taking care of their current client base when they call and have questions about a product sold to them by their insurance agent but they are not securities licensed? 2. If the insurance agent is not securities licensed but continues in servicing their client and a registered representative files a complaint with the SEC because the insurance agent is discussing securities without a license how can you regulate that? 3. Should the thousands of clients that have billions of dollars in these products be penalized by having their friend and trusted advisor that is an insurance agent no longer be able to help them with their equity index annuity? 4. Will the SEC pay the surrender charges incurred by clients when a registered representative transfers them out of their current equity index annuity and into another product? 5. Will the SEC be able to monitor the activity of the sell of equity index annuities as it has shown it's lack of ability to look into it's current obligations. The headlines are evidence to this very fact! WALL STREET CRISIS! Where is the SEC now that everyone has made their money and left."

My Response:

This rambling and nonsensical statement goes after Registered Representatives as criminals and again builds a straw man. Insurance agents will not abandon their clients and source of income if forced to register, they'll register and if they don't, someone else will steal their clients. This is not an attempt to avoid needless regulation, it's an attempt to stay essentially unregulated. The insurance industry still allows what amount to kickbacks in their sales process and allowing such a system to continue is the real purpose of this agent in my opinion, a perpetuation of a corrupt system.


Claim/Statement #4

"It has been my experience in dealing with securities licensed people that the only thing that everyone needs is to put money in the market and securities. Any fixed annuity is almost below them when in fact often times people instruct them to give them a safe investment. Whoops! Insurance companies sell insurance products and broker/dealers sell securities products. This is not a time when we need to be arguing over what type of product should the equity index annuity be but whether or not the SEC a federal organization that cannot even handle it's current obligations be given authority to regulate even more that they cannot." 

My Response:

So this agent's limited experience now makes him an expert on all products sold across the industry. He presents no evidence. He does get one thing right, insurance companies sell insurance products! But B/D's sell all sorts of products, not just market based securities. If you only have an insurance license, all you can sell is fixed annuities (which are not investment, but savings products), it's the same old adage, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I'm certainly not going to argue that the products B/Ds sell are good for clients, but the main reason (left unspoken), in my opinion that this ValuTeachers/LSW agent doesn't want additional regulations is because it will end up cutting his commissions and all the perks received from the insurance companies. This is about the gravy train, not the regulatory train.


Claim/Statement #5


"It is evident with the current crisis on Wall Street that the SEC should spend more time regulating Wall Street and leave the insurance products to the insurance companies."

My Response:

Umm, AIG anyone? They were an insurance company, right? Nuff said.

Claim/Statement #6

"I urge you to give careful consideration to this rule and see through the mere attempt at increasing the number of people paying fees to the SEC. The product is harmless in most cases to the investor. There have been abuses as there have been in the selling of mutual funds to investors who have said they do not want any risk. The SEC handles the registered representative that does wrong and the insurance departments are handling the insurance agents that do wrong."

My Response:

The SEC doesn't regulate brokers (Registered Representatives), FINRA does (technically there is some overlap). Can anyone with a straight face really say that the state insurance departments have a handle on the sale of Equity Indexed Annuities? Anyone who reads this blog knows they don't. These products do cause harm and are mostly sold because of the high commissions and lack of any need to register combined with sales contests that send agents to Cabo, Maui, Monte Carlo...etc.

Conclusion

I've reprinted the letter below, I found it on the net, here. This letter provides some insights into the way EIA agents think. They are attempting to defend their turf and their income, but we need to make sure that the defense of their income doesn't come at the expense of the client. EIAs need more regulation.
Scott Dauenhauer, CFP, MPAS, AIF

Thursday, November 05, 2015

Warren Commission: Villas, Castles, and Vacations


Senator Elizabeth Warren began an investigation of insurance company non-cash compensation methods several months ago, what she found will be shocking to most people, but not to those of us who've been following the unethical sales practices of the annuity industry for decades.

Titled Villas, Castles, and Vacations: How Perks and Giveaways Create Conflicts of Interest in the Annuity Industry, the document outlines some of the incredible perks that insurance agents receive in addition to commissions when they sell annuity products. Warren hinted at some of these perks in a Senate Banking Committee back in April, you can watch her below:


In this report Warren attempts to discover the entirety of non-cash compensation, though she isn't entirely successful, here's an excerpt:


"Kickbacks pose an especially dangerous problem. When companies can offer kickbacks to agents for recommending high-cost financial products, and when those kickbacks are hidden from the customers, the likelihood that consumers will be duped into buying bad products increases sharply. 
To explore the prevalence of this type of conflict of interest, in April 2015 Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) opened an investigation, asking fifteen leading annuity providers for information on whether they offered non-cash incentives such as lavish cruises, luxury car leases, and other perks to annuity sales agents to promote their products and whether their customers were aware of the agents’ compensation arrangements."
Reading this report one wonders how the insurance industry continues to get away with such unethical and clearly conflicted business practices, it's a testament to the power of that industry and Warren is confronting them head on.

Dan Otter of 403bwise.com and I recently did a podcast on such compensation practices and you should be able to listen to it soon by going to www.teachandretirerich.com and clicking the podcast link.

I encourage you to watch the above video and then dive into Warren's report.


It's time to put a stop to these unethical compensation practices.

Scott Dauenhauer, CFP, MPAS, AIF

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Conflicts in Fixed Annuities: Incentives Part II - The Trips, The Amazing Trips!

Do you know what incentives lurk behind the products our nation's educators are sold in their retirement programs?

It doesn't take much time searching the internet to find some of these incentives.  I receive e-mails everyday detailing where I can go if I sell enough of XYZ product.

One major conflict of selling most fixed annuities is insurance agents may be incentivized to sell products of a single company (or several products from a single Insurance Marketing Organization) in order to qualify for special perks.

These perks might be exotic trips, cash or even Apple products. 

There is no law against offering special perks and insurance companies are within their right to offer agents big incentives to sell their products.  However, it's my opinion that this is a major conflict of interest that should be disclosed and potentially even banned.

Fully paid for vacations to exotic locales could certainly persuade an agent to sell one annuity product or another or to sell an annuity when another financial product would be more appropriate. Educators should be aware of the incentives behind products sold to them. In a perfect world there would be no incentives, only the best interest of the client and a fully disclosed compensation scheme separate from the recommendation.

Qualifying for exotic trips is one of the biggest lures for getting insurance agents to sell the products of an insurance company or from an Insurance Marketing Organization (or IMO, an entity that essentially wholesales annuity products).  Sell enough of a certain product or of a collection of products and the agent may end up with a trip to any number of locations.

Many companies offer trips and other perks as incentives to sell their products.

What follows are the destinations for this year and the last few years for those who qualified for one big name insurance company:

2014 Hayman, Great Barrier Reef; Sydney, Australia

2013 Big Apple Bonus - New York City

2013 The Ritz-Carlton, Key Biscayne Florida

2012 Fairmont Orchid Resort, Kohala Coast, Big Island of Hawaii

2011 Riviera Maya, Mexico

2010 Florence, Italy

Another insurance company has a “Leaders’ Club,” which awards a Mediterranean cruise for those who produce enough annuity premium. The cruise is on the Crystal Serenity Ship and cruises to Italy, Greece and Turkey from April 20th to May 7th, 2014!

This company also had a qualifying trip for 2013 to the Four Seasons in Lanai, Hawaii, not bad.

I’ve attached various documents I’ve found from Insurance Marketing Organizations below. It's a cornucopia of great vacation locales:

Ireland

Ritz Carlton in Hawaii

Puerto Rico

Spain

Portugal

Alaskan Cruises

Riviera

Whistler

The list never ends.

Here's a link from an e-mail I just received, check out the headlines:


Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa ValleyExplore all that the Napa Valley has to offer in your limousine wine tasting excursion. Later, you can unwind with a soothing fireside massage or full service spa.
Pebble Beach LodgeEnjoy this world-renowned resort, while indulging in two rounds of golf at the infamous Pebble Beach courses.


All of these trips are achieved by selling annuities to our nation’s educators.  I think it's reasonable to ask if this is appropriate.  The issue has certainly been addressed before in the financial services industry.

Back in 2003 the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined Morgan Stanley $2 million dollars for conducting sales contest that “offered or awarded various forms of non-cash compensation to the winners, including tickets to Britney Spears and Rolling Stones concerts, tickets to the NBA finals, tuition for a high-performance automobile racing school, and trips to resorts.”

That was over a decade ago, yet a similar practice in the fixed annuity industry is not only allowed, but seemingly encouraged (Morgan Stanley never admitted or denied the charges). Why is this okay?

Why are our nation’s educators retirement savings being invested by such conflicted sales agents? In my opinion,  this is not acceptable. The industry answer is a disclosure document that is light on disclosure, does not disclose incentives behind the sale and misses the point entirely.  An industry spokesperson from ASPPA/NTSAA was recently quoted:
“We maintain that improving transparency is a far better approach to improving the 403(b) marketplace, than taking away public school employees retirement choices.”
How convenient. Parade around a confusing disclosure document that doesn’t actually disclose pertinent items like exotic trips and whether or not the agent is acting as a fiduciary rather than addressing the actual problem.  Having said that, I think that insurance companies, insurance agents and insurance marketing organizations should be transparent about what incentives are behind the sales of their products.

Since fixed annuities are insurance products, they are regulated at the state level - they are not securities and thus out of the purview of the SEC or FINRA. Perhaps the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should get involved. For what it’s worth, I’m calling on the fixed annuity industry to make changes to the sales incentives they offer.

I call on all insurance companies that offer products to our nation’s educators to do the following immediately: 

Stop offering additional incentives for the sale of your products

Stop offering your products through IMO’s who offer such incentives

Set commissions on a level basis and disclose them fully

Don't allow agents who sell your products to represent themselves as advisors

Insurance agents, you are not innocent in this - I call on you to do the following:

If possible, stop doing business with companies who offer exotic trips in exchange for recommending their annuities.

If offered a special incentive, kindly decline

Disclose to clients the existence of such incentives

Make your voice known on this topic

I’m willing to bet my e-mail inbox will be silent.

I want to make clear that not all insurance agents are evil, greedy, commission and perk hungry.  I've met many qualified agents whom I respect and even refer my clients to when appropriate.  A good insurance agent can be very valuable (though less so in the fixed arena).  But if you are in education and the person selling you something is licensed to only sell you that product, you might look elsewhere.  As the saying goes, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

I’ve listed links to a bunch of the documents I found on the internet referring to special trips. The links are likely to be dead soon (if they aren’t already)...so, I’ve pdf’d the documents and made them all available to you using my own host. All the documents were obtained on the open internet - no passwords, no firewalls, the information was freely available to anyone.



Scott Dauenhauer CFP, MSFP, AIF
@403bAdvocate
The Teacher's Advocate



 Chairman’s Club 2014

 Champions 2013

 2012

 2011

 Leaders Club

 Miscellaneous Trips