Wisconsin Announces Settlements

Wisconsin insurance regulators have negotiated settlement agreements with two companies that sell life and annuity products.

Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Sean Dilweg says Bankers Life and Casualty Company, Chicago, a unit of CNO Financial Group Inc., Carmel, Ind. (NYSE:CNO), has agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty to resolve an Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) investigation of reports of unsuitable annuity sales and violations of do-not-call list and home-solicitation rules.

The settlement agreement requires Bankers Life to establish a comprehensive supervision and training program to ensure its agents and branch managers comply with annuity suitability rules and other rules, officials say.

A Bankers Life representative says the company is committed to staying in the Wisconsin retirement market for the long-term.

“We share the industry’s concern about annuity suitability and have cooperated fully with the OCI,” the Bankers Life representative says. “More stringent annuity suitability procedures have been developed over the last several years which, along with consistent monitoring, ensures strict adherence to state compliance requirements for annuity sales and marketing.”

Dilweg also has announced the Pennsylvania Life Insurance Company, Lake Mary, Fla., a unit of Universal American Corp., Rye Brook, N.Y. (NYSE:UAC), has agreed to pay $2.9 million in restitution to resolve concerns about 307 individuals who owned annuities or “asset enhancer” life insurance policies.