Are You Protected as a Life Insurance Policyholder at Genworth? 

Life insurance offers the insurance policyholder the payment of a death benefit to named beneficiaries upon their death, in exchange for life insurance premiums paid routinely according to the policy’s constraints. Life insurance often gives people a sense of financial security, and offers protections for their loved ones in the case of tragic circumstances outside of your control.

It is essential when choosing a life insurance policy to make sure that the policy covers all the circumstances it needs to, providing for a number of unknown variables, and also presents a reasonable cost commitment.

Genworth Life Insurance Company

Genworth Life Insurance Company is a subsidiary of the Fortune 500 company Genworth Financial. Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Company is another subsidiary. The company began as The Life Insurance Company of Virginia in 1871, nearly 150 years ago, and changed hands a number of times before becoming Genworth Financial in 2003.

Genworth Financial received 120 approvals by state regulators to increase its long-term care (LTC) premiums, with a weighted average rate increase of 45%, per CNBC.

According to a current lawsuit, Genworth Life Insurance Company policies promise that changes to the cost of insurance will be based on expectations of “future investment earnings, mortality, persistency, expenses and taxes,” and that changes would not be made in an attempt to recoup prior losses. Other terms in the policies promise that any price increases would be uniformly applied based on the age of the insurance policyholder, their net risk, their premium class, and the age of their policy, according to the lawsuit.

Genworth Life Insurance Complaints

A number of dissatisfied policyholders have filed Genworth Life Insurance complaints with the Better Business Bureau over a variety of issues, including drastic premium increases in the last year or so.

One Genworth life insurance policyholder posted on Sept. 18, 2020 that after receiving notice that their premiums would increase to a certain amount ($5,330.80), they received a notice that they would actually be charged a premium of $6,914.02. The insurance policyholder stated that their belief is that Genworth printed this error on purpose “in hopes that [they] would not remember” the agreed-upon rate.

Another insurance policyholder wrote on July 26, 2020 that their Genworth policy purchased back in Aug. 1989 had a quarterly premium of $225.00, and that they were told at the time that the premium would not increase over the policy’s life. However, the policyholder recently received a letter increasing the quarterly premium to $630.42. To make matters worse, they said, “for all these years of paying premiums, there is nothing left,” and that they were told that “all the policy was worth was $590.00…They have never paid anything on my policy. The only thing that they have done was collect the premiums and did a change of address…I’m sure that there [are] a lot of seniors that were counting on this insurance for their children and now are in a situation that they cannot afford the premiums.

“I feel that I have been robbed,” they wrote. “If raising the premiums on the seniors as they aged so that they cannot afford them, this way they do not have to pay out, this should be illegal.”

Genworth Life Insurance Company Faces Class Action Lawsuit

More than one life insurance policyholder has had an issue with Genworth—in fact, the insurer now faces a class action lawsuit in federal court. According to the lawsuit, the insurer took advantage of its policyholders by dramatically hiking their prices in what it calls a “massive, unlawful, and excessive” move.

According to the lawsuit, Genworth subjected its policies to a substantial price increase starting in late 2019, affecting decades-old policies specifically. Even a Genworth life insurance policyholder who hasn’t yet seen this price hike may see one in the near future, plaintiffs claim.

How high were these price hikes? According to the lawsuit, life insurance policyholders have seen their monthly cost of insurance jump between 40% and 140%.

Which Genworth Life Insurance Policyholders Were Affected?

Not every Genworth life insurance policyholder was affected in this alleged price hike. Specifically, this price increase affects those with policyholders issued in the late 1990s through the early 2000s, affecting these policies:

• GE Gold.
• First Choice Gold.
• GE Gold II.
• First Choice Gold II.

Should You Contact an Attorney About Genworth Life Insurance Company?

If you are a Genworth insurance policyholder and were hit with a price hike on your policy issued between the late 1990s and early 2000s, you may be able to join or file a lawsuit and pursue compensation.

It is important to note that the deadline for plaintiffs to join the current class action lawsuit against Genworth Life Insurance Company is Feb. 1, 2021.

Filing a lawsuit can be a daunting prospect, so Top Class Actions has laid the groundwork for you by connecting you with an experienced attorney. Consulting an attorney can help you determine if you have a claim, navigate the complexities of litigation, and maximize your potential compensation.