Should some fraudulent insurance sales practices be a crime?
Florida CFO Alex Sink wants to make it a felony for insurance agents to forge signatures on insurance and annuity documents or trick people into swapping one annuity or insurance policy for another. But, as my colleague Jennifer Liberto wrote today, Sink blames Metropolitan Life for trying to block the bill's passage. In the story, Rep. Clay Ford expresses concern about sending more people to prison, claiming "we already have prisons filled with people who commit white-collar crimes." I'd call that statement extremely doubtful. The armed robber who steals $10 from someone on the street is far more likely to go to prison than the insurance agent who steals someone's life savings. So far no insurance agents have even had their licenses revoked for selling the EISA fraud.
Senate Bill 2082 also increases the penalty-free cancellation period on policies from 10 to 14 days.
St. Petersburg Times personal finance editor Helen Huntley writes about money topics and answers questions about financial planning, investments and personal income taxes.
Assuming that there even is one occurring concurrent to them continuing to make a livelihood off the spoils of their deceptions.
Typical "pass the buck" till the only one holding all those bucks is the scammer.
Posted by: | June 19, 2008 at 07:37 PM
So far the state has not taken any action against any insurance agents who sold EISA. When I ask, I'm told that they're waiting for the criminal investigation to be completed.
Posted by: Helen Huntley | June 19, 2008 at 01:44 PM
Wasn't it a law that after 2002 an insurance agent selling unregistered security should lose their license, is that not being applied in the EISA case? Helen do you know?
Posted by: | June 19, 2008 at 10:58 AM