MUtual Of Omaha Life Insurance Company Rip-off ploicies Omaha Nebraska

Hello Cathy,

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I can only imagine what it would be like to be in your shoes right now.

In full disclosure, I am NOT an employee of Mutual of Omaha (MoO), however, I AM contracted with them, as well as many other insurance companies in a few different states.

After hearing you're story, I knew that you were 100% correct with everything you said in your report. However, I just wanted to be a little more specific as to why that was. 

There are 2 different types of death benefits with MoO's Final Expense product:

1. Level benefit means the client has their entire face amount from day one. The Living Promise level benefit has a standard issue age for final expense 45-85, with face amounts ranging from $2,000-$40,000. The premiums for the level benefit product are based on gender and whether or not the client uses tobacco.
A Level Benefit is also known as a Full Benefit, and healthier clients will be able to qualify for it.

2. A graded plan means the death benefit in the first two policy years is not the full face amount of the policy. If a client the dies during the first two policy years, their beneficiaries will only receive a Return of Premium (ROP) paid + 10%.  After the second year the beneficiary will receive the full death benefit.  Premiums for the graded plan are based only on gender, not on tobacco use. The issue ages range from 45-80 and the face amounts from $2,000- $20,000.


From your story, I can only deduct that your mother purchased final expense coverage from MoO using the graded plan. I don't know if she had any health issues when she originally applied for her coverage, as that could have effected how the insurance qualified her for the graded plan.

Now, I didn't write this rebuttal to add insult to injury and try and defend MoO, but rather point out that MoO should be paying 100% of her money back plus 10%.

Hopefully at least getting her premiums and 10% back will help with the costs of everything. 

Again, I am sorry for your loss, and if you ever have any questons or if there is anything I can do for you, please let me know!

Sincerely,
A concerned agent

Each state has a Commissioner of Insurance. Make a formal complaint. They will take a deeper look into the policy and if you should have been paid you will. Also, if the policy was sold on false pretences you might be able to make them pay. Just google Commissioner of Insurance ______(your state)______. I am sure each state is a bit different, but that is one option you have to get what is coming to you. Sorry for your loss.

I totally agree with the consumer comment above regarding the Due Diligence part on the customers' side. Since not all customers will have profound legal knowledge on contract law or consumers rights law, I would like to express my opinion on the other side:

Integrity and Competence of Professional Services

1./ Integrity

If all professionals have "integrity" in their hearts as the first and foremost priority when providing their services (or selling products) to their customers/clients, i.e. telling the truth on both sides (pros and cons) of a product without deliberately hiding any important facts which would very likely affect the immediate (and future) benefits of the purchasers; I would say the sales rep. should be able to have good sleep every night with a clear conscience. They are not liars or crooks when something beyond reasonable measures happen in the future, i.e. the consumers should blame no one if all the major consequences on the main terms & conditions on the contract have been clearly explained before signing.


2./ Competence

2a) As the pay scheme is mainly performance/commission based in any sales profession, and most companies require their sales force to meet certain quotas, e.g. every quarter (If s/he doesn't meet the target, s/he will be out of the business, no matter how senior s/he is; and when s/he's out, all his/her hard work will be in vain as the client base s/he has built by sweat and blood will stay with the company, not him/her); so there's a pressure factor;

2b) In Finance/Insurance, entry level sales rep will need to study for professional exams and they are not eligible to sell certain products without first getting the corresponding licenses, i.e. regulated. However no one is likely to know/understand everything (actually you don't have to) in order to pass those exams (MC based - which means that you can make a wild guess if you don't know either the questions or the answers; and if you're lucky enough, you might pass the exam with a bare knowledge of the subject.) So a newly qualified professional without in depth knowledge and much experience is going to sell some products to his/her prospects. A big question is how competent is this professional? Will s/he really know about which would be the best product (among thousands to choose from) for a particular customer? [another bigger question is that does s/he really care?]


Together with the pressure factor of meeting quota & beating deadline, and in order to keep his/her job; s/he might be tempted to take shortcuts (or to cut corners), i.e. pushing a familiar product which might be recommended by insurance companies (might be affiliated business partners or most likely the parent company). Such product usually might not necessarily be the best fit for that particular customer, but most of the time give the broker/agent highest commissions (much easier to achieve the required targeted quota with least effort, i.e. efficiency). When a product sells, everyone wants to do it quickly, and I wonder how many of these professionals will spend the time to read through the product information cover to cover and understand it inside out before selling it to his/her customers? The common excuse for not doing the due diligence on the service provider side would be:

(i) hey our competitors are selling these products and generating revenues like a charm, the products must be great! Let's sell them and don't miss out or lag behind.

(ii) Or hey my seniors or other (more experienced) sales reps here in the office are selling this product, I won't go too wrong to follow the crowd. On the contrary, it would be weird if I question them about why we're pushing this product [Some agents even have a work ethics/culture such that front line sales reps just do what the management tell them to do.].

So not much room for critical thinking; can't afford the time to do extensive research; huge pressure from meeting target; fear of losing the job. It's obvious to see what all these factors are leading to.

To me, there are lots of doubts when a sales rep tells its customers:

"This is the best insurance policy for you."

If an insurance agent tells me that there is no such thing of "best fit", then my humble opinion would be you telling the customers the truth on both sides of the product, e.g. back to the complaint above, if I were the sales rep, I'd definitely mention about the "2-year" requirement and its possible consequence - it's just a too important term to be NOT disclosed to the customer VERBALLY while explaining the benefits/returns of the policy before getting the customer to sign the contract. I'd say if the sales rep was not deliberately avoiding to address such info to the customer, s/he is not competent at all ("Sorry, I overlooked that." is not acceptable). If selling life insurance is a "helping people" business, you should always put your feet into the customers shoes, you should ask yourself questions like, "What would be the best deal I can get for this customer?", "Any catches, downsides, hidden fees/costs, or any risks with this policy I should mention and disclose to the customers?".

In my humble opinion, the agent should help/educate the customers on due diligence as a demonstration of their professional courtesy, competency, and customer care. The customers should have the rights to know what they are buying, the benefits and the risks involved in any financial/insurance products; and a good agent/broker would be the person held with responsibility to ensure those rights are exercised during a transaction.

Cathy says : "They don't tell you this and if you are like most Americans you do not have the time to read the fine print in your policy, and they sure do not inform you of this at the time of your Insurance purchase of this time frame!"

Cathy, take some time and read through the reports on this site. I'll bet that around 9 out of 10 complaints are the result of people who sign contracts that they don't read. If you are of the attitude that you, like "most Americans", don't have time to read contracts before signing them, then I think we will probably be hearing from you again. A contract is an agreement between yourself and another party. If you don't read the contract, how in the world would you know what you're agreeing to? BTW- using the "salesman told me..." excuse doesn't work. What's written in the contract overrides anything that the salesman tells you.