Prudential Class Action Filed Over Insurance Scam Sold by Wells Fargo

An Arizona man says Prudential Insurance conspired to sign up Wells Fargo customers for life insurance they never asked for.

Plaintiff Alex Perea claims Prudential Insurance Company of America and its related companies ran a program that sold low-cost life insurance to Wells Fargo customers and took payments for premiums out of their bank accounts, all without their knowledge or consent.

According to this class action lawsuit, Prudential Insurance started selling low-cost life insurance policies under the brand name MyTerm from around June 2014 through October 2016. These MyTerm policies were low-premium policies that did not require medical background checks.

Perea claims Prudential designed these policies specifically to be linked to Wells Fargo bank accounts so that policy holders would pay their premiums via automatic electronic payments.

He claims the arrangement between Prudential Insurance and Wells Fargo provided that bank employees would promote MyTerm policies to bank customers and receive a “kickback” as compensation based on the number of customers they could get to sign up for a MyTerm policy.

As a result of that arrangement, Wells Fargo employees were incentivized to sign bank customers up for Prudential Insurance policies without their consent – or worse, under false pretenses, Perea claims.

He says that in some cases, Wells Fargo employees simply signed customers up for insurance without even discussing the policies with them. Many of these customers didn’t notice the sudden and regular debiting of their Wells Fargo accounts for premium payments, he says.

In other cases, Perea claims Wells Fargo employees tricked customers into signing up for MyTerm policies by deliberately deceived them about policy terms.

Perea says he has had a Wells Fargo bank account since 2010. He claims that in October 2016, he received a letter from Prudential stating that his payments for MyTerm life insurance were past due and that he was being reported to collections.

Before receiving that collections letter, Perea says he was unaware that an unauthorized application for life insurance had been submitted in his name. He says he never applied for insurance, never received any documentation about the MyTerm policy, and never even gave Prudential Insurance his contact information.

He says he complained to Prudential Insurance customer service, wondering if he had been a victim of identity theft. The company initially ignored his complaint and refused to cancel his policy, he says.

When he pressed the matter further, three Prudential Insurance employees initiated an investigation. Those employees were ultimately fired after they objected to the MyTerm policy program, Perea says.

Perea is proposing to represent a nationwide Class consisting of all persons in the U.S. who were Wells Fargo customers and were enrolled in MyTerm life insurance policies either from Prudential Insurance or the other defendants Pruco or Pruco New Jersey, without their knowledge or their knowing and informed consent.

He seeks an award of compensatory, exemplary and statutory damages; return of all fraudulently gained premium payments and any ill-gotten profits; and reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation, all with pre- and post-judgment interest.

The plaintiff is represented by attorney Ellen Relkin of Weitz & Luxenberg PC, Kevin E. Barber of Niedweske Barber Hager LLC, and Nancy Erika Smith and Neil Mullin of Smith Mullin PC.

The Prudential Insurance MyTerm Conspiracy Class Action Lawsuit is Alex Perea v. The Prudential Insurance Company of America, et al., Case No. 2:33-av-00001, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.