Reply #5: Another article--soldiers thought they had enrolled in a "savings plan"

[rainbow4321]

http://www.ajc.com/money/content/money/1004/19military.html


The American Amicable Life Insurance Co. of Waco, Texas, confirmed on Monday that the Justice Department had subpoenaed documents relating to the company's sale of insurance products to military personnel and other federal employees.

The civil subpoena — which people who participated in discussions about it said was issued by the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia — was served in late July, after a series in The New York Times disclosed that the company's agents had used misleading sales practices to sell expensive life insurance policies to Iraq-bound recruits at Fort Benning, Ga.

Last month, American Amicable of Texas dismissed three agents involved in the abusive sales at Fort Benning, disciplined a fourth agent and offered to return premiums that soldiers there had paid for their policies — $1,200 a year for death benefits of less than $30,000. Several young soldiers who bought the policies said they thought they had enrolled in a savings or investment plan.
Michael S. Blume, an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, said Monday that his office "can't confirm or deny the existence of any investigation, as a matter of policy."


American Amicable Life Insurance is one of four companies owned by American Amicable Holding, also based in Waco. Last year, its sister company, Pioneer American Insurance Co. quietly offered refunds to more than 340 Marines at Camp Pendleton, Calif., after base legal officers complained about misleading sales tactics. Additional refunds may be owed to soldiers at other bases where the agents at Fort Benning also worked, according to insurance regulators in Georgia, who are conducting a broad investigation of insurance sales on military bases in that state.