AIG.ANNUITY INSURANCE COMPANY ripoff AMARILLO Texas

AIG morphed in was is now Western National Life Insurance still slinging the same worthless deferred income annuities targeted and sold exclusively to seniors. The gist of the original complaint is factually consistent and true today of Western National, from my experience. These annuities are strongly peddled through banks who have access to private customer information to unsophisticated seniors who grew up trusting bank employees. It is a system that will continue to operate ad infinite.  Similar to the original complainant, my 76 year mother was scammed into purchasing a $200,000, 29 year annuity Western National Life Insurance Annuity by Sherrie Shruti Kohli of JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. of Chase Investment Services.  In other words, my mother would have had to live to be 104 years old before she experienced the benefits of this Western National Life Insurance annuity. Beyond the obvious problems, the money used to purchase the annuity was "borrowed" money from a home equity loan with a substantially higher interest rate than that guaranteed by Western National. In addition, there was a note on all of her bank accounts to call me first before transferring more than $5000 because it was reasonable foreseeable that my mother could be victimized. Lastly, the ballon payment on the home equity loan was due less than 60 days after the Western National annuity was purchased. When it came time to reverse the annuity purchase Western National first took a stance favorable to J.P. Morgan Chase and refused to honor the Power of Attorney executed by my mother.  Only after threatening litigation and releasing Western National from all liabality did Western National return my mother's money so that we could make the ballon payment and save her home from foreclosure.

As I read the report of AIG and how the consumer "robert" thinks that AIG is holding his money, I think of the hundreds of calls that I receive everyday from individuals that do not understand the process, and those that do not grasp how many claims that are handled everyday in a company that big. There are always going to be the few that think they are not treated fairly and they will never be made happy. When someone is the beneficiary of a claim on an annuity, there are steps that have to be taken to be legal for the recipient and the grantor.

As for a poer of attorney, it is a matter of a simple form, and since the poa (power of attorney) was not in place for you but your sister that passed away, new paperwork stating who you are and who you have poa over has to be sent in and investigated, also careful calculations have to be done to get to the proper benefit amount and details of death dates and named beneficiaries have to be researched, proper deathcertificates hae to be submitted (you would be surprised how much is held up by beneficiaries not turning in original death certificates, trying to save $10- $15) for all surrenders, transfers etc, ALL companies have basically the same articles that have to be typed up and submitted, no exotic unattainable mystic pieces of paper, all of it is spelled out clearly when a transaction is started.

I deal with this everyday. Someone calls in and their transfer has been held up for a month because we don't have a signed letter of acceptance, we write letters, tell them when they call in, but somehow it always comes around to we are "stonewalling" their money. What do we have to gain by holding it? Paying daily compounded interest on the policy? We have too many claims that come in daily to call each and every person who forgets to sign a form, send in a piece of paper, etc. If we stopped to do all that, NO ONE would ever get a check. In my opinion, just from what I get on the phone all day, too many people have the "me first" attitude, their crisis is always worse than the other 10 heard that day so their paperwork should go before the other 200 that are waiting their turn.

My advice as a Customer Service Rep is, 1)READ your policy and know what you are buying, 2) know your facts before you call and yell at a person on the phone that is honestly trying to help you 3.) Make sure YOUR side of the paperwork is correct before sending it in to save frustration on both sides of the fence.