Kyle Busch smiles prior to a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, in Concord, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
Pacific Life Insurance asked a court Thursday to dismiss NASCAR champion Kyle Busch's lawsuit alleging nearly $8.6 million net in losses tied to indexed universal life insurance policies.
Busch and his wife, Samantha, accuse Pacific Life and an agent of promoting complex IUL policies as "tax-free retirement plans" that were misrepresented as safe, self-funding investment vehicles. The Busches seek to recoup nearly $8.6 million in out-of-pocket losses plus punitive and triple damages.
They've also warned the public to avoid what the race car driver described as a devastating financial scheme.
The Busches, alleging fraudulent and deceptive conduct, contend that the defendants used misleading illustrations, undisclosed costs and false promises of guaranteed multipliers and controllable charges to induce them to pay more than $10.4 million in premiums.
Pacific Life contends in a court filing that the lawsuit "is filled with inflammatory and disingenuous rhetoric, but none of it shows any wrongful conduct by Pacific Life." The company argues that "there is no support for their allegation that they could not evaluate the 'real-world operation of the policies.'"
Also, Pacific Life contends, most claims in the lawsuit are prohibited under statutes of limitations.
The Busches "fail to establish that Pacific Life violated any legal duty — as required for their negligence and breach of fiduciary duty claims," and their complaint "fails to allege any misrepresentation by Pacific Life of a past or existing fact," the company states in the filing in U.S. District Court for North Carolina's Western District. "Indeed, the Complaint never identifies a single false statement by Pacific Life, because there is none."
Despite access to their own professional advisors, the Busches failed to manage their policies and now make "baseless claims that ignore clear, repeated, and explicit disclosures that illustrated values were 'not guaranteed' and that the Policies would not be 'paid up' after five annual premium payments," Pacific Life alleges.
While the policies were in force, the Busches "had as much as $90 million of valuable insurance coverage on the life of Kyle Busch while he engaged in an ultrahazardous activity," plus insurance on Samantha Busch, the company states. "There is no legal basis to provide Plaintiffs with a massive windfall by refunding all of their premiums."
The company contends that the Busches signed policy illustrations indicating their intent to pay premiums and hold the policies over 30 years, but instead of keeping the policies long enough to capitalize on their growth potential, the couple "failed to timely pay planned premiums, failed to monitor allocation of their policy values between indexed and fixed accounts, and surrendered the policies or allowed them to lapse."
Rather than accept responsibility for their decisions, the Busches are attempting to blame their negative outcome on the IUL product and purported oral promises that are contradicted by written disclosures that they acknowledged and signed, Pacific Life alleges.
Another recent filing indicates that the parties discussed a potential settlement but didn't reach an agreement.
Credit: Matt Kelley/AP Images
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