Phillip Stano

  • us.eversheds-sutherland.com/People/Phillip-E-Stano
  • 1990 - GOV (Senate) - Impact of Restructuring of the S&L Industry: A Case Study on Bluebonnet Savings Bank
  • 1998 - LC - Crown v. Casteel - 98-0218
    • ACLI Brief - Stano
  • 2001 - MDL 1404 - IN RE: Philadelphia Life Insurance Co. Sales Practices Litigation / Conseco
  • 2010 - LC - Blumenthal vs. New York Life  ---  [BonkNote]
  • 2019 0425 - American Bar Association - “Based on” What? Courts Split over Cost of Insurance Rates, by Steuart H. Thomsen, Phillip E. Stano, and Wilson G. Barmeyer - [link]
  • Philip E. Stano, senior counsel for litigation at the American Council of Life Insurance (ACLI), has argued that the insurance fraud provisions of the 1994 law were based on a flawed premise - Congress' failure to respond in timely fashion to the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s.
    • “Congress erroneously believed that parallels could be drawn between the insurance industry's and the savings and loan industry's financial condition and the degree of criminality occurring within those industries,” Stano wrote. 

1996 - CQResearcher - Insurance Fraud: Will a new crackdown reduce the losses?, By Richard L. Worsnop, October 11, 1996 – Volume 6, Issue 38 - [link]

  • Q - Defense Attorney (Phillip E. Stano, Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan): The next sentence, quote, this can happen due to insufficient premium payments if loans or withdrawals are made or if current interest rates or charges fluctuate. So the illustration gives three reasons by which the cash value might be insufficient. Let me repeat those. One is insufficient --
  • A - Blumenthal (Policyowner - Plaintiff):  You don't need to.
  • Q - You understand that?
  • A - Yeah. Jesus.
  • Q - Okay.
  • A - Get to the point that you're trying to establish.  Jesus, this is ridiculous.
  • Q - You --
  • A - This has nothing to do -- I know I was paying the premium. That's all I know, period. That's it.
  • Q - So--
  • A - We paid every month whatever it was.
  • Q - So the three reasons that are given in the illustration that the cash surrender value can be insufficient, you understand those three reasons that I just mentioned?

2011 - LC - Blumenthal v. New York Life -  2010 0302 - 85-1 and 85-7 - Exh 1 and 6 - Deposition of Irving Blumenthal - 61p

  • 1997 1024 - WSJ - MONY Wins Dismissal of Suit Over 'Vanishing Premium' Policies, by Leslie Scism - [link]
    • The company, popularly known as MONY, won a dismissal this week of a national class-action lawsuit that is similar to more than 30 suits pending against major life insurers.
    • ... in the MONY case, New York state judge Beatrice Shainswit found that..
      • while thousands of consumers nationally "have been deeply aggrieved by what they perceive to be a grave injustice perpetrated upon them by the numerous insurance companies who contrived, and profited, from the "vanishing premium" concept," this "ill-conceived product" doesn't necessarily "equate to fraud, or any other actionable wrongdoing, which can be compensated for in a court of law."
      • Her 29-page decision debunks key arguments in almost all of the suits. - <WishList = "29-page decision">
        • She said insurance agents don't have a fiduciary relationship with their clients, as plaintiffs' lawyers contend.
        • She also maintained that sales documents stating that dividends aren't guaranteed at high levels were sufficient warning to consumers that they couldn't rely on other promotional literature showing rosy dividend scenarios.
    • [ACLI] - "This case, being typical of many other baseless class actions, will be cited as authority in other jurisdictions for dismissing those frivolous cases," predicted Phillip Stano, senior counsel for the American Council of Life Insurance, a trade group in Washington. "And we congratulate MONY for standing up to those who sought to intimidate them into a frivolous settlement."