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Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz) has been targeted in a growing number of annuity lawsuits after allegedly applying secret “haircuts” to annuity payments and employing harsh surrender penalties.
Allianz developed and sold an annuity product called “two-tier” deferred annuity, which it said would offer purchasers higher returns and greater value. The two-tier deferred annuity required that the purchaser defer “annuitization” – taking out account money – for at least the first five years. After these five years, purchasers would then take deferred annuity payments over a period of at least 10 years, and up to life.
While Allianz promised that the two-tier deferred annuity product would offer a greater value to its purchasers, Allianz annuity lawsuits allege that the company broke this promise by cutting the amount of each annuity payment after the initial five-year deferral period. According to Allianz annuity lawsuits, Allianz applied a six percent haircut to account funds of purchasers.
For those purchasers who failed to meet annuitization requirements (a five year deferral and taking payments out in a period of ten years or more), Allianz allegedly had extremely harsh surrender penalties. According to Allianz annuity lawsuits, these penalties allow Allianz to strip a huge percentage of the deposited premiums and can increase over time, never going away. Penalties under this system can allegedly reach or even exceed 50 percent.
An Allianz annuity class action lawsuit investigation is looking into allegations that Allianz knew that many of its policyholders could not comply with its requirements, and therefore set up the two-tier structure primarily to make money and cheat purchasers out of their funds. The Allianz annuity class action lawsuit investigation is also examining claims investigating that Allianz failed to adequately disclose its surrender penalties to its consumers.
What is an Annuity Fraud Lawsuit?
Annuity fraud lawsuits often involve the elderly who have been targets of financial scams. These scams take advantage of older people in an effort to cheat them out of their life savings, and ultimately do not live up to the benefits initially offered or promised.
Signs that indicate involvement in an annuities scam include:
- If a person is unlikely to live long enough to collect payments, deferred due to company requirements.
- If the annuity makes up more than 35 percent of the person’s assets
- If the Surrender Fee (the amount a person is required to pay if they cash-in early on their annuity payments) is more than 14 percent of the principal
- If the same agent sold the person multiple annuities
Though it is statistically true that the elderly are often targets, even financially savvy consumers can be affected by financial fraud with useless life insurance or phony annuity products that purposefully and maliciously charge excessive fees or hold purchasers to difficult requirements.
Many injured parties targeted by Allianz and other companies accused of fraudulent financial practices have started filing annuity lawsuits.
If you were sold an Allianz annuity that failed to live up to expectations, you may be able to receive financial compensation. You may be able to file an individual Allianz annuity lawsuit, or you can join an Allianz annuity class action lawsuit.
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21 thoughts onAllianz Facing Annuity Fraud Lawsuits Over Deceptive Practices
I have not as yet reached the (long term) maturity of this annuity, and the statements I get appear to be valid and positive- although the surrender value is seemingly short of what I would expect, given the long period of time that I have invested. Do I need to do anything before maturity to recoup the funds?
I would like a free evaluation into my Allianz Annuity to verify there is an issue.
I was outright lied to by the man who sold me the Allianz Annuity 360 three years ago. He is a neighbor and friend so I was less skeptical of him, but here is what he told me: 1. He was an investment advisor, he is not; 2. He has so much clout with the company he could get me “out of it” if I wanted, 3. He has a lot of friends who make 100’s of thousands of dollars. What I have learned. Almost anyone can sell this annuity. There is a 3% cap on all “strategies” wh. Combined with the 1.5% lifetime guarantee of income means I average 1.7% a year. He makes a 6% commission. He knew that this is 2/3rds of my savings and he tried to even get me to put all of what I spend to live on in another annuity. This annuity has a very high surrender fee. He came into my home drunk and very upset when I called the company because after 3 years I realized this is not an interest accruing account and that I was going to have to lose thousands in surrender fees and additional thousands in lost income had I just invested in a conservative mutual fund. He has seriously compromised my ability to survive. Again, he lied repeatedly and totally misrepresented what this annuity is. I will fight this company for years if I have to. He is also an open alcoholic I have learned as he has a drink in his hands at 9 am many mornings. The promise of such huge commissions leads to this kind of behavior and I believe the company is at fault for not requiring some financial training and for giving such perverse incentives for people in financial trouble to make this commission.
I need help with my last Allianz Annuity. They send out incorrect statements that are so obvious. I am not making any gains and they are cleverly manipulating the system.
Help,
Susan
I owed a US Allianz High 5 annuity from 2003 till 2015…. contract # DAD11638 .I still currently still own Allianz Master Dex 10 Plus account # 70794894
Anyone else having issues pressing the “get a free case evaluation” button and getting nowhere?
Yes, I am having issues with my remaining Allianz Annuity. Can you help?
SS.
ss75248@gmail.com
I purchased Allianz annunity.it is tied up for ten years to get bonus. It has 20% surrender fee if early. It did not make a penny in interest last year that was on 2000,000 dollars.
Certainly not the product or bonus I was told about when I enrolled. Fortunately my investment was minimal instead of the 300,000 I was thinking about doing. Guess it sounded too good to be true so I stayed away. Just cannot trust any sales person these days.
Marlene Cosand I purchased something similar also, and was given bad information from the company which lead me to getting spooked and surrendering it and paid a huge fee for cashing in early.
I purchased one of these from Allianz and paid a huge fee for cashing in early.