Author: Chen Fengnian
Image: shutterstock
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In 2010, Lao Wang, who had retired at the age of 79, was told by phone from Bank A that his time deposit was about to expire, so he went to the bank and planned to apply for renewal. After arriving at Bank A, Xiao Huang, the financial management specialist, was helping Lao Wang with the time deposit matter. He said to Lao Wang: “Uncle, I see that your money has always been in time deposits! But now the interest rates of investment policies are easily higher than Fixed deposits are still high, and you can no longer buy investment insurance if you are over 80 years old! It would be better if you just use the money to buy investment policies!”
Lao Wang couldn’t stand Xiao Huang’s repeated lobbying, and he also felt that the interest rate on time deposits was very low, and he couldn’t fight against “inflation” at all, so he decided to buy the investment policy “○○ Variable Life Insurance” from B Life Insurance Company (Part 2) It is called the disputed policy 1), the payment term is 3 years, and the annual premium is 2 million yuan.
The following year, when Lao Wang turned 80 (between July and August 2011), Xiao Cai, another insurance specialist at Bank A, used the same method to recommend Lao Wang to purchase two more “○○ variable life insurance policies” (respectively). The second and third policies in dispute, together with policy one in dispute, are collectively referred to as the disputed policy/insurance contract), with a payment period of 20 years and annual premiums of NT$2.2 million and NT$2 million respectively.
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Then, Lao Wang received SMS notifications for insurance premium payment one after another, and was shocked to find that the total premium for the three-point insurance policy was as high as more than 6 million yuan. He couldn’t afford it, so he had no choice but to postpone the payment. Soon after, Lao Wang received another written notice from Life Insurance Company B. The letter clearly reminded him that because he had not paid the insurance premium, the value of his policy account was about to “return to zero”, so the insurance contract was about to be suspended. Effective status.
Lao Wang was shocked after reading the letter, so he quickly asked his son Xiao Wang to see how to deal with it better. Xiao Wang first asked his father to calmly review the situation and process of the sale. It turned out that during the sales process, Xiao Huang and Xiao Cai, both from the Polytechnic School, took only 15 minutes to ask Lao Wang to sign the guarantee document, and they only provided The blank form asked Lao Wang to sign at the signature place. Other documents, such as the “Investment Risk Attribute Evaluation Form for Policyholders”, etc., Lao Wang did not fill in or dictate at all, and in the guarantee letter that the two people gave Lao Wang to keep, There is also no policyholder investment risk attribute and financial evaluation form.”
Also, when Lao Wang purchased these investment insurance products, he was already a retired senior citizen in his 80s. He had no investment experience at all before, and only had a high school education and limited cognitive understanding. Two financial professionals from Bank A The recommended investment policy is not suitable for Lao Wang at all. What’s even more exaggerated is that Xiao Huang and Xiao Cai only kept emphasizing that the policy in question was life insurance, and that the interest rate was higher than that of fixed deposits, and there were fixed monthly interest distributions, and it also had life insurance functions. However, the policy in question was a linked fund investment. , cannot guarantee principal and interest, is completely different from fixed deposits, and other risks, but there is no mention of them at all. It is simply avoiding the important and taking the easy.
What’s more, the two insurance professionals sold three high-value investment insurance policies to Lao Wang in just 10 months without providing relevant information and services. Until now, they have been unable to pay the high monthly premium. Because the policy was about to expire due to the excessive premiums, Life Insurance Company B began to suggest that Lao Wang terminate the contract. It was really irresponsible.
Can Lao Wang request Life Insurance Company B to return the 3 million yuan in insurance premiums paid?
(Adapted from the 110th Annual Review No. 1439 of the Review Center)
Further reading:
With high income and low material desires, can you retire safely if you put your money in fixed deposits instead of investing it? A 35-year-old couple spent 50,000 yuan in their 65 years as an example, revealing the cruel numbers of pension preparations in one table
Under the old regulations, it is difficult for elderly customers to claim compensation.
Let’s go back and see how the review center handled this review case.
There is a famous proverb in the legal community: “Where the evidence is provided, the case is lost.” This means that parties who bear the burden of proving a certain fact will usually lose the case because they cannot provide evidence. This sentence is undoubtedly demonstrated in this case.
This dispute occurred in 2010 and 2011. At that time, Article 6 of the Precautions for the Sales of Investment Insurance Products did not add the previous obligation of the insurance operator to record and record the evidence, so the insurance salesperson had carefully understood the requirements when selling. Consumers and assess suitability (KYC)”, “Insurers have informed consumers of the important contents of the insurance contract and disclosed risks at the time of sales” (obligation to inform and disclose) and other positive matters. The burden of proof should originally be borne by the insurance industry. .
However, insurance companies often take out the insurance application form, notice of important matters, notice of cost and risk disclosure, policy receipt confirmation letter, policy terms and other documents that the consumer has already signed when signing the contract, claiming that since the consumer has signed If you pass, it means that you agree and understand the matters recorded in the document.
Now that the insurance company has provided preliminary evidence first, consumers are now forced to provide evidence to prove that the salesperson at the time of sales hastily mentioned or did not mention any important content or risks at all. However, as mentioned above, consumers are often powerless in the process and suffer defeat because it is difficult or impossible to prove.
This is generally the case with the evaluation center’s decision on this case. Life Insurance Company B submitted documents such as the insurance request letter, notice of important matters, notice of cost and risk disclosure, policy receipt confirmation letter, policy terms, etc. The evaluation center believed that “the relevant documents must be signed or stamped by the applicant (Lao Wang). The text at the top is still simple, and the applicant is not a completely illiterate adult. It cannot be said that the applicant is ignorant. It can be recognized that the counterparty has fulfilled its obligation to explain the fee collection and risk disclosure.”
Although Lao Wang also claimed that the content of the “Investment Risk Attribute Evaluation Form for Policyholders” was not filled in or dictated by himself, but since Lao Wang signed the guarantee letter and other related documents, he could not provide relevant evidence, so the evaluation center based The court’s practical opinion can only consider Lao Wang’s claim to be “inadmissible.”
The evaluation center believes that the “fitness” assessment of life insurance company B is a mere formality
Fortunately, regarding the suitability part, the evaluation center believes that although Lao Wang has signed relevant documents, since Lao Wang’s risk-bearing capacity (negative annual return rate) and (including price and exchange rate fluctuations) options in Policy 1 are checked as unacceptable, Obviously it is inconsistent with Lao Wang’s risk tolerance.
In addition, Lao Wang filled in the source of premiums for the disputed policy from deposits and retirement savings, but Lao Wang’s net assets are 8 million yuan. The total annual premium for the disputed policy is 6.2 million yuan, and the payment periods are 3 years and 20 years respectively. , and Lao Wang has retired and his family’s annual income is only 800,000 yuan. Is Lao Wang’s net worth enough to pay the annual premium of 6.2 million yuan? We have not seen any relevant evidence provided by Life Insurance Company B, so we cannot make a favorable determination for Life Insurance Company B.
Based on the principle of fairness and reasonableness, the evaluation center determined that Life Insurance Company B should compensate Lao Wang a considerable amount.
Finally, the evaluation center concluded that although Lao Wang could not prove that Life Insurance Company B had violated its notification and disclosure obligations, the suitability assessment information provided by Life Insurance Company B was obviously inconsistent with Lao Wang’s current assets and income. Based on the principle of fairness and reasonableness in Article 20 of the Financial Insurance Law, the evaluation center believed that Life Insurance Company B should compensate Lao Wang a considerable amount.
About the Author_Lawyer Chen Fengnian
Former Director of the Evaluation Division of the Financial Consumer Evaluation Center, former Prosecutor of the New Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office of Taiwan (2006-2016), Legal Advisory Committee and Consultant Lawyer of the Police Department of the Ministry of the Interior, and passed the New York State Bar Examination (NY Bar) (2017) )
This article is excerpted from “Insurance Disputes Eliminate Trouble: A Self-Help Manual for Financial Consumption Disputes” published by FUN
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2024-02-29 02:21:35
