TransAmerica人寿保险涉嫌非法剧增保险成本费用

Feller et al v. Transamerica 人寿保险公司，美国地区法院，加州中央区法庭

（案件编号： 2:16-cv-01378）

根据一份由消费者监督机构和其它代表Transamerica消费保险持有者的全国消费者们在洛杉矶联邦法院起早的诉讼书文件显示，十几年前从Transamerica保险公司购买人寿保险的顾客现在正面临着要么每月支付高昂的额外保险费用，要么失去保险单的尴尬选择境地。

在上世纪80年代末，90年代初期。Transamerica所出售的万能寿险套餐条款曾承诺支付年化利率不低于5.5%的月利息与死亡收益 ，这相当保险单持有者的保险费存入一个保险的储蓄账户。

 

在这个官司中的原告夫妻像Mary 与 Gordon Feller，Margaret 与George Zacharia, 购买了保险单这样他们理应在退休之后开始享受福利。但在2015年6月，保单持有者们收取了一封来自Transamerica的信，信上显示他们增加了每个月的保险费费用达到38%，对于这个案子中的Margaret和Zacharia家庭来讲。这就给已经进入退休年龄的保单持有者两个选择：支付更高昂的保险费用或者失去保单。

TransAmerica保险公司声称，他们提高从客户账户每个月支取的成本，是根据“我们根据的未来成本计算目前费用”。但是诉讼方指出，TransAmerica违反了合同规定，并且以增加费用为借口， 去逃避或抵消每月本该为保险单持有者合理支付的利息收入。

 

根据状书，由于人们现在寿命更长，因而相对来讲保险成本比之前低了很多，但是Transamerica依然每个月从保单里克扣额外费用。

诉讼方也认为，Transamerica正在不当地试图弥补由于20年代大衰退以来的最低的利率环境所遭受的损失。 与此同时，TRANSAMERICAN 却为的母公司上缴数十亿美金的利润。并且Transamerica不仅仅渴望，而且蓄意让数以千计的保险单持有者被迫因每个月增加的成本用而放弃自己的保单。

代表消费者监督机构的律师与Bonnett, Fairbourn, Friedman & Balint, P.C律师行联手---这是全国权威的保险诉讼律师，另一些则来自律师事务所Shernoff, Bidart, Echeverria & Bentley，他们是保护消费者免受信誉不良保险公司侵害的全国顶尖律师楼。

 

目前诉讼送达 洛杉矶加利福尼亚 联邦法院。

=============================

 

Transamerica Life Illegally Hikes "Cost of Insurance" Charges

Posted by Harvey Rosenfield

Case Status:

Active

Feller et al v. Transamerica Life Insurance Company, United States District Court, Central District of California (Case 2:16-cv-01378)

Consumers who bought life insurance protection from Transamerica Insurance Company decades ago are now facing a choice between paying enormous increases in their monthly premiums or losing their policies, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles by Consumer Watchdog and other consumer advocates on behalf of Transamerica policyholders nationwide.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Transamerica sold universal life insurance packages that promised to pay guaranteed monthly interest of no less than 5.5% annually, as well as death benefits, in exchange for premiums paid by policyholders into a policy savings account. Couples like the plaintiffs in the case, Mary and Gordon Feller, and Margaret and George Zacharia, bought the policies so that they and their families would be protected as they entered their retirement years. But in June 2015, policyholders got a letter from Transamerica announcing that the company was increasing the monthly charges on the policy – by 38%, in the case of the Fellers and the Zacharias. This has left policyholders – now entering their retirement years – with the choice of paying higher premiums to cover the higher charges, or lose the policies.

Transamerica claims it is raising the monthly charges that it deducts from policyholder accounts based on “our future costs of providing this coverage.” But the lawsuit alleges that Transamerica breached its contract and acted in bad faith by raising the charges as a pretext to avoid or offset its obligation to pay guaranteed monthly interest payments to the policyholders.  According to the complaint, because people are now living longer the cost of insurance under the policies is lower than when the policies were issued; yet Transamerica is attempting to collect increased monthly deductions from the policyholders.

The lawsuit also alleges that Transamerica is improperly trying to recoup losses it has sustained as the result of low interest rates since the Great Recession -- while at the same time it “upstreamed” billions in profits to its parent company -- and that Transamerica not only expects, but intends, that thousands of policyholders will be forced to give up their policies as a result of the increases in the monthly deductions.

Lawyers for Consumer Watchdog are joined by those of Bonnett, Fairbourn, Friedman & Balint, P.C., nationally recognized life insurance litigators, and from the law firm of Shernoff, Bidart, Echeverria & Bentley, which leads the nation in protecting policyholders from insurance companies that act in bad faith.

The suit was filed in federal court in Los Angeles, California. Read the lawsuit Complaint here.