1.6K views
New Reviewer
24 comments
stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full stars-rating-full
5.0

One of my friend sold me one million IUL, because I trusted him, though at that time he had not known what he sold to me. As a result, he asked his top team leader to talk me with all the rosy pictures of the product by giving me an great figures in their illustration.

When I got policy, I found out there had been so many important things they hided not to tell me and nothing guaranteed. I feel having being misled and hesitated to sign the policy. Their top team leader told me that my concern is out the question, for there are no such a thing that IUL drop for consecutive 20 years, if that's the case, my policy lapse. But it's not true and when I realized it, it's too late.

I want to surrender my policy but they would fine me more thant $60000 charges, which is really unacceptable. What can I do now?

Reason of review: Not as described/ advertised.

Monetary Loss: $60000.

Preferred solution: Full refund.

World Financial Group Cons: I feel having misled.

Location: Waukegan, Illinois

Do You Have Something To Say ?
Write a review

Comments

chat-icon

Please avoid publishing any personal information and promotional content

You will be automatically registered on our site. Username and password will be sent to you via email.
Post Comment
Guest

Okay guys, I don't understand why WFG is a big deal hear if underwriters are other companies. WFG is a broker like any other broker.

Regardless of who sells you any kind of a policy they all "DON'T" want you to cancel. Besides any one who sells any insurance product has to be licensed and in order to keep their licenses there are rules and regulations that mostly protect the buyers, and sellers "CAN NOT" break them if they want to make a living selling insurance. The purpose of insurance is "PROTECTION" and Universal Life (UL) and Whole Life (WL) or any combination of those hefty premium type insurances are to protect wealthy and high net worth individuals who have a lot to loose and therefor pay a lot more to protect themselves.

Majority of people who earn less than $150K a year should be okay with Term Life (TA) and maybe add some Critical Illness (CI) to it and invest the difference in S&P 500 index fund that has been returning on average between 8 to12 percent over the past 10-20 and 30 years. After all that is exactly what all insurance companies do.

Vishnu Hhf

@Jt , +Jt :

Hi Jt, you helped answer your own question. The FFIUL's guaranteed growth of 2--3% falls far FAR behind the exploding late-life Cost of Insurance (COI) charges, sucking bone dry your Cash Value and collapsing your FFIUL.

You LOSE everything: your Death Benefit and the $100,000s you faithfully poured into this radioactive pig in a poke.

As for 6%, 7% and higher illustrations the WFG sales rep-licants use? These are "vapor on paper." Total rainbows''n'unicorns fantasies. FFIUL holders will NEVER EVER see those returns over the long term.

Over the long term--the 40, 50, 60 and more years they hope to hold their FFIULs--they'll see 2.5--4% MAX.

Hope this helps Jt. Thanks for reading and good luck.

Guest

I don't understand how you'll "lose" money. When you purchased your policy, were you not given an illustration of the estimated growth? Plus the lower, but guaranteed growth illustration (typically 3%)?

Vishnu Hhf
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1381107

Hi Jt. Please see above my answer to you. Thanks.

Guest

"I feel having being cheated"...ha ha, is this new? They know if they tell you the all the costs/fees and what would most likely happen in the long term, you would NOT buy their main product (IUL) and they won't make the BIG commissions. So please, this is NOTHING new for WFG!

Guest

The issue has not been solved. I talked with the agent and the agent's manager, they say a better way out is to downsize my coverage by waiting for two full years while I can pay minimum monthly premium.

I afraid I will have to follow their instruction otherwise, I would suffer a lot financially.

Thanks a lot for your having paid great attention to the issue.

Best regards,

Xiao Zhong Geng

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1190709

Don't talk to your agent or his manager for there opinion...they can't be trusted...Xiao...call the insurance company directly.Of course the WFG agent or manager don't won't you to dump your policy they will have a chargeback and THEY will have to give back some money off the commission they make on your policy{your money}.More than likely you can dump it and the company will call it even.It's an insurance policy...not child support! Take a few hundred dollars and see a lawyer to quit this leach of a policy if you need backup to make sure it's done right..you'll still be 10's of thousands ahead if you live a long life..

Remember the exact same thing could happen if you live to be 80 and can't pay 3000$/month in premiums at that time..what would you do..1-pay rent,utilities and eat or2- dump an insurance policy that's taking all your money? Any sane person would do the first option and not be on the street!

Good luck!!

Prudencio Zlt
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1190709

Xiao, John's absolutely right. The WFG people are the *last* people on Earth who will give you good advice, for the reasons John gave you.

Xiao, you need an independent advisor who's fee-ONLY. You need an advisor who does NOT sell any insurance and other financial products. That person will not have any reason to push you to stay in a bad policy.

Xiao, you own a kind of Universal Life policy. โ€œxUL,โ€ like VUL (โ€œVariableโ€) and IUL (โ€œIndexedโ€).

xUL costs start to soar massively high as you get older. Youโ€™re much better to CUT your losses. Please dump this policy NOW and save yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars that you WILL lose if you live a long life.

Please don't โ€œthrow good money after bad.โ€

Indeed Xiao, we're seeing more and more law firms and attorneys who are suing, or are looking into suing, companies like Transamerica and WFG who devise and sell xUL policies. You should contact them and send your full contract to them for their eval and consider to join a class-action suit:

Lieff, Crabraser, Heimann & Bernstein: (800) 541-****

Zamansky LLC: (212) 742-****

Gerald Sinclair Flanagan: (310) 392-**** Travis Murray Corby: (310) 246-**** William Martin Shernoff: (909) 621-****

Guest

This is a long term investment and the IUL has a safety ground (0.75%) to cap (15%) growth. Where are you going to put your money with that guarantee?

Prudencio Zlt
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1183184

Atlanta Anon, youโ€™re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The policy the OP has--likely Transamericaโ€™s FFIUL--is often an evil long-term confidence game that will likely soak him for hundreds of thousands of dollars over his lifetime.

And leave him and his heirs with NOTHING.

Folks the FFIUL is one life-long pay-as-you-go cruise you want to skip. For WFGers or anyone to tout the the supposed โ€œbenniesโ€ of the FFIUL--like the index account โ€œfloorโ€ and a varying index cap that can drop as low as 2%--these sales anonytrons merely try to hide from you the true terrible cost of this disastrous insurance policy. Who cares what floors WFG/TA gives you if the swelling tidal wave of late-life Cost of Insurance (COI) charges swamp this policy and sink it, if you live a reasonably long life.

A healthy non-smoking 75yo man could end up paying over $21,000 in annual COI charges. If he lives to 80? Make that up to $36,000 per year--**$3,000 per month** in COIs. If you live longer, the costs skyrocket from there.

Say bye-bye to your $100k, $200k, or more of your hard-earned dollars you fed into the unforgiving โ€œSea of Transamerica,โ€ never to be recovered. Your heirs get NOTHING.

So much for WFG โ€œhelping families.โ€ Itโ€™s more like โ€œhelping yourself to your familiesโ€™ hard earned money. Leaving them with *NADA*.โ€

Atlanta Anon, if you have a solid by-the-numbers rebuttal to this, please post it here.

Weโ€™ve love to see it. Thank you.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Prudencio Zlt

Hey william3. I garanteed you are broke and working a 9-5.

But anyways how is the client feeding dollars into the unforgiving sea of transmerica. The facts are that wfg has no products, they are just the middle man for companies.

It's better having your money in these polices than with 0.5% growth in the banks. And I personally am not with WFG but have seen many ordianry people doing extraordinary things because of wfg.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1183184

That is a lie. The IUL long term return is much much lower than S&P index and since their costs is some 10% for the first 10 years, IUL policy owners will actually lose a lot of money (and the opportunity to make money from real index ETFs investments) during this 10 years. BTW, they also drops the cap 15% to about 11~12% now for most IUL products.

Guest

Hi. This is Carol.

I need a little more help/clarification. Here's a *** question...is cancelling a policy and surrendering a policy the same? When you cancel the policy (after the look over period expires), is there a cancellation fee? Is that different than a surrender charge?

Plus what is the "window of opportunity" to drop a policy in order to still give the WFG agent a chargeback?

Thank you for any and all help.

Prudencio Zlt
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1178865

Welcome back Carol, hope you've been well! Yes, cancelling a policy and surrendering a policy are the same thing.

No, you almost certainly will not have to pay a cancellation fee. Surrender charges are those cash funds already in your policy, which you already paid as part of your premiums.

To cancel a policy early enough to get a full refund, the "window of opportunity" aka the Free Look period is usually 10 to 30 days after you buy the policy. "Chargeback" refers to the commission the agent has to pay back to WFG/insurance carrier if the policyholder surrenders his policy before a certain time, typically a year.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Prudencio Zlt

Thank you William. I've been well and hope the same goes for you.

I know I must have sounded a little ditsy with that question. Clearly "cancel" and "surrender" have similar connotations, but I just wanted to make sure they didn't have any added meaning in insurance lingo.

:-).

Guest

I would like to know as well. I have had my IUL for almost 2 years now, paying about $80 a month and would love to cancel it to minimize losses or take my money back if possible since I've grown incredibly dissatisfied with WFG practices.

Can any of you guys help explain the processes of the IUL and whether it is even worth keeping? I of course will contact the issuer themselves, but would like other people's opinions and advice, thanks!

Prudencio Zlt
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1178745

Hi Houston Anon. Please check out the 25 May review in this forum titled โ€œPlan to live a long life?

Will your FFIUL--WFGโ€™s โ€œtopโ€ product--FAIL and leave you with NOTHING? I show you the MATH.โ€ This should give you everything you need to know to make a decision on your IUL.

Especially if you bought Transamerica's FFIUL. Chances are excellent you'll want to dump your IUL and buy Term Life.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Prudencio Zlt

Hi William3. I haven't bought Transamerica's FFIUL.

I believe mine is just the Western Reserve Life/Transpremier IUL. After reading the 25 May review, I definitely think I want to dump my IUL cause I'm very unsure it's worth it in the long run and now it seems much more definitive that I should. May I ask another question on surrender charges? At this point in time, almost 2 years since I bought the IUL, would I have to pay surrender charges?

I read from the review that the company will just take the money and I won't pay extra but I just want to be 100% sure. My WFG agent said if I wanted to cancel it (I asked a few months before) that if I did at this point in time, I'll be charged like $3,000, way more than the cash value in the IUL.

He keeps insisting it's something I should keep since I'm 19 and that it'll grow a lot later on, but it seems like it won't. Honestly feel scammed after finally opening my eyes and going with my gut feeling :/

Prudencio Zlt
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1179294

Hi Anon. Definitely don't rely on what your WFG agent tells you.

He'll tell you what's good for *him* and his upline, not what's good for *you.* He has a vested interest for you to stay in your policy, especially if WFG/TA extended the commission chargeback period to two years. For Transamericaโ€™s FFIUL, you can call 800-PYRAMID (797-****) and ask for Transamericaโ€™s Inforce Policy Service. Please take that Inforce Policy repโ€™s advice as the final word on the matter. Youโ€™ll lose the cash value that *already exists* in your policy.

You won't get that money back. That's the "surrender charge" part. But you won't be charged any extra funds. When you surrender your policy, you simply walk away.

No-one will send you a bill. You most likely have the FFIUL. It was called WRL's FFIUL until 2014 when Transamerica's purchase of Western Reserve Life became final a year or two ago. It's conceivable that in a very few cases the FFIUL can actually make sense, e.g.

if you've already maxxed out your other tax shelters, esp your Roth IRA. If you're such a person, please take your FFIUL to a Fee-ONLY (not merely fee-based) financial advisor.

Make sure he's fee-ONLY--that he doesn't sell or promote any insurance products--so you get the best assurances heโ€™ll be YOUR fiduciary. For the vast majority of FFIUL policyholders, theyโ€™ll want to get out NOW and cut their losses.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Prudencio Zlt

Term life is a lousy deal. Leaves you with no cash value, and the premiums skyrocket in 25-30 years. I'm starting to think the ppl who complain about IUL are just term life agents who are threatened by WFG.

View more comments (4)

World Financial Group Reviews

  1. 108 reviews
  2. 9 reviews
  3. 11 reviews
  4. 6 reviews
  5. 32 reviews
World Financial Group reviews