William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

Can life insurance agents and their carriers be held responsible for adverse tax consequences resulting from their advice to customers about transactions involving the policies agents recommend and sell?  A customer who relied on agents for tax advice concerning an annuity transaction believed the agents should be held to account for recommending a transaction that turned out to carry an unexpected tax bill.   She sued the Insurance Company in federal district court, claiming its agents committed fraud against her by failing to inform her of the tax consequences of an annuity rollover.

The plaintiff owned two annuities—valued at about $80,000 and $12,000—that she received in a divorce settlement.  She contacted the insurance company to find out her options for rolling the annuities over into one policy. Read this complete article at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all of the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

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