The Missouri secretary of state's office says an Overland Park man made "unsuitable annuity sales," which translates into English as "ripping off old people."
A cease-and-desist order accuses James Otto, a former Bankers Life and Casualty Co.
insurance agent, of steering investors into products that were better for him than his clients. Though not licensed to sell securities or give investment advice, Otto allegedly moved more than $7 million of his clients' money into commission-rich annuities.
Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan announced yesterday that Bankers Life will pay $574,000 to more than 100 investors, "many of them seniors, who suffered losses after their savings were mishandled" by Otto.
Carnahan's office says Otto's clients knew he was moving their money, but they ended up in bad investments. "All too often, seniors are sold complex equity indexed annuities just so a salesman can profit, and that is wrong," Carnahan said.
Carnahan is not the first regulator to target Otto's activities. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a cease-and-desist order against him last fall.
Otto worked as a Bankers Life agent from 2002 until his termination in 2006. "We take these matters very seriously and actively monitor compliance with our high standards," Barbara Ciesemier, a spokeswoman for Chicago-based Bankers Life, tells the Plog in an e-mail. "When those standards aren't met, we take necessary action."
Continuing with the bad-apple theme, Ciesemier says the issues described in the cease-and-desist order "were related to conduct specific to certain individuals in one branch office and do not reflect nor are they consistent with the sales and training practices of the company."
However, Ciesemier goes on to say the company instituted a new "annuity suitability program" in 2009, which suggests that Otto's customers weren't the only ones whose savings were mistreated by a Bankers Life agent.
Comments (0)