{"id":4619,"date":"2008-06-10T17:22:09","date_gmt":"2008-06-10T17:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stockbrokerfraudblog.com\/2008\/06\/state_regulators_investigate_w"},"modified":"2021-09-20T15:42:31","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T20:42:31","slug":"state-regulators-investigate-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/state-regulators-investigate-w\/","title":{"rendered":"State Regulators Investigate World Financial for Deceptive Sales Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tSecurity regulators in Missouri, Utah, and a number of other US states are accusing World Financial Group of making variable annuities sales that are unsuitable and misrepresenting investment returns<\/a>. A number of World Financial customers have filed private arbitration claims making similar allegations. <\/p>\n

World Financial is owned by Dutch insurer Aegon NV. World Financial’s agents sell annuities, life insurance, and mutual funds. Unlike more traditional sales teams, however, agents make money based on a pyramid-like multilevel sales system. The agents receive most of their compensation from their recruitment of new agents rather than products sales, including a portion of the commissions that the new agents make. <\/p>\n

In a 2006 investor presentation, Aegon USA CEO Patrick Baird called World Financial a “real recruiting machine.” The company reportedly has over 18,000 licensed insurance agents and brokers and, according to an Aegon executive in 2006, about 80,000 “producers,” which includes unlicensed and part-time members. Those who meet sales goals are awarded jewelry and trips to the top of the Transamerica Building in San Francisco that is owned by Aegon. Clients are sometimes invited to join the company’s sales force.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Security regulators in Missouri, Utah, and a number of other US states are accusing World Financial Group of making variable annuities sales that are unsuitable and misrepresenting investment returns. A number of World Financial customers have filed private arbitration claims making similar allegations. World Financial is owned by Dutch insurer Aegon NV. World Financial’s agents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773,3740],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broker-fraud","category-miscellaneous"],"yoast_head":"\nState Regulators Investigate World Financial for Deceptive Sales Practices — Investor Lawyers Blog — June 10, 2008<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Security regulators in Missouri, Utah, and a number of other US states are accusing World Financial Group of making variable annuities sales that are — June 10, 2008\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/state-regulators-investigate-w\/\" 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