Monday, July 23, 2018

What's up with West Coast Life?

Readers may recall this story from last summer:

"[T]he application was apparently written in Ohio, but the applicant chose to have the exam done in Texas. I'm thinking that right there's a red flag, but apparently WCL wasn't bothered by it (or perhaps, they became retrospectively concerned). In the event, a person claiming to be the applicant shows up, all 176 pounds of her."

Which would have been fine, except that the actual applicant clocked in at over 200% of that. And of course, come claim time, WCL finally thought it maybe oughta take a look into these ... unusual ... circumstances, and at that point determined that they'd been had.

Well, it turns out that the case actually happened right down the road from us, and thanks to FoIB Holly R, we have new news:


"Mason family who faked life insurance policies, bought Bentley convertible, pleads guilty"

On the one hand: Bentley. Kudos to the Stevenson's for enthusiastically embracing the concept of "go big or go home."

On the other hand: Every few years, I'm required to take an industry-approved anti-money-laundering course (which one of our field reps refers to, unironically, as "a how-to course"). We still don't know who actually wrote this case, although it's certainly not the accused  who, in an ironic twist that defies disbelief, "operated Lego Demolition out of the family’s home."

I bet.

On the gripping hand: how is it that a well-known and financially strong (AM Best rating A+ Superior) carrier can be so easily duped? There is no way that death benefit gets "EZ Issue" underwriting.

Methinks some West Coast Life heads will roll.
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