UPDATE:
- The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) declined to hear State Farmโs appeal to a lower courtโs ruling upholding a $34 million jury trial award on Monday, April 27, 2021.
State Farm was hit with a $34.3 million trial verdict over class action allegations that the insurer took more from universal life insurance policyholdersโ accounts than permitted.
The State Farm universal life insurance deduction class action lawsuit claimed that the company used prohibited factors to calculate the cost of the universal life insurance products, leading to overpayment by policyholders.
The lead plaintiff alleged that he had overpaid by $3,000 for his $100,000 life insurance policy.
The insurance giant fought back and succeeded in getting punitive damages trimmed, arguing that it had not acted with reckless disregard or evil motive in assessing the policyholdersโ rates.
However, the company also argued that the State Farm universal life insurance deduction class action lawsuit should have been dismissed because it advertised maximum costs, but did not charge policyholders over the amount advertised.
โBecause State Farm charged Plaintiff COI rates consistent with the terms of his policy, there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact, and State Farm is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on all of plaintiffโs claims,โ stated the motion to dismiss the State Farm universal life insurance deduction class action lawsuit.
However, a federal court judge refused to toss the State Farm universal life insurance deduction class action lawsuit in its entirety.
After a four-day trial, State Farm was hit with the $34.4 million jury verdict. The jury found that the company engaged in breach of contract and conversion as alleged in the State Farm class action lawsuit.
The company had also asked the federal court to decertify the Class in the State Farm universal life insurance deduction class action lawsuit. Class Members who were not injured by State Farmsโ fee assessing practices should be removed, argued the insurer, as opposed to simply not receiving an award.
Further, argued the company, some members of the Class in the State Farm insurance class action lawsuit would actually be assessed at a higher rate.
According to the State Farm universal life insurance deduction class action lawsuit, the lead plaintiff purchased his universal life policy from the company in 1999.
The plaintiff alleged that although State Farm used age, sex, and race to determine his policy rates, the company also used โunauthorized factorsโ that led to a higher rate.
According to the plaintiff, this action led to him and other Class Members paying higher rates over long periods of time, 14 years in the plaintiffโs case, leading to thousands in damages.
State Farm fought the $34 million jury verdict. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the juryโs decision and SCOTUS declined to hear the insurerโs arguments.
โAfter employing every appeal and delay tactic available to it, State Farm will finally be obligated to pay the jury verdict returned nearly three years ago,โ a lawyer representing the plaintiffs told Law360 of the Supreme Courtโs decision not to hear the case.
Top Class Actions will continue to monitor this lawsuit for further developments.
Are you a Class Member in the State Farm universal life insurance class action lawsuit? Tell us about your experience in the comment section below!
The lead plaintiff and Class Members are represented by Patrick J. Stueve, Norman E. Siegel, Ethan M. Lange, and Lindsay Todd Perkins of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP and John J. Schirger, Matthew W. Lytle, and Joseph M. Feierabend of Miller Schirger LLC.
The State Farm Universal Life Insurance Deduction Class Action Lawsuit is Vogt, et al. v. State Farm Life Insurance Co., Case No. 20-1008, in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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249 thoughts onJury Awards $34.3M in State Farm Life Insurance Fees Class Action
Please add me to class action, I purchased a UL policy in 2010
Please send me information regarding this Class Action Suit against State Farm. I bought $250000 for my wife and today my agent called me asking me to pay more monthly from $300.00 PM to $425.00 PM or accept reduced benefit to $200000 till I am 80 years old. I accumulate from $250000 to $265000 and now I will loose $65000 for being loyal State Farm Customer. BUMMER..!!
Please add Donna T Bearden Lawton to this lawsuit
We purchased Universal Life with State Farm in the early 1990โs and would be interested to know if there is an open lawsuit against them. We were sold on the fact that it would be paying for it self and making money. Instead our premiums go up and had to lower our coverage to keep the policies. I still have the projection sheet they used to convinced us to purchase it instead of whole life. What a mistake
I have our projection sheets as well! Iโm going to have to take a look! I was told I need to DOUBLE my premium monthly to maintain my insurance for another 20 years!
I have been paying in since 1999. Cost of insurance keeps going up and cash value keeps going down. In 5 or 6 years, there will be no cash value and no insurance benefit.
I have Paid for 2 life insurance policies for over 8 years and While Switching banks account i started noticing i was charge and the beginning of each month and Also ant the end of each month. I inquired about my finding and was assured that it was a bank error in how it was viewed online. Staff stated that i was not double charged but it continues to happen.
I bought 4 Universal Life polices from State Farm in 1994 when I was 44 years old. Told by agent not to buy 10 or 20 year term insurance because at the end of the term would be charged based on age at that time if I wanted new policies. Instead told Universal policies the premium never changed. Turns out the Universal policies were basically 20 year term policies and now the cost of insurance is almost 3 times the premium I thought I would pay for life. Told by State Farm I may as well just let my policies lapse and go away since cost no longer makes sense now that I am 71 years old.
State Farm was very misleading in the way this Universal Policy was sold to us for a variety of reasons. The COI is extremely high and if I had it to do over, I would never have purchased this. We thought as a young married couple that we were doing the right thing. Please send me information about this suit.
Please send me more information regarding this class action lawsuit with State Farm Insurance. I have had a universal life policy with them for about 15 years now, which Iโve been overfunding ever since opening it with the intent of having the extra money fund the account should I run into financial hardship at some point In my life. When reviewing this monthโs statement, I happened to notice all of the โexpense feesโ totaling approximately 25% of my premium. Thatโs ridiculous! My insurance premium is paid automatically each month and funded by a State Farm Bank Checking Account, yet Iโm getting charged a fee every month to process the payment for my premium which is basically just to transfer money from one account to another. I then get charged another fee each month for the cost of insurance on the same date they credit my insurance policy with the amount of interest earned and
(which, btw, the fee is more than the amount of interest Iโm actually earning). Whatโs more troubling is that this policy is now losing value because of all the feesโ so much so that my guaranteed coverage (even if I continue to overfund it as I am currently) will still run out of money in less than 10 years. How is that possible??
Purchase $150,00 policy, about 40 years ago. All of a sudden the rates have gone through the roof. We continue us to pay because have already paid so much. Is there a class action suit that addresses life insurance through Farmers Insurance