PIABA - Public Investors Advocate Bar Association

  • 2021 0809 - LC - Amicus Brief - PIABA - Public Investors Advocate Bar Association - Williams v. National Western Life Insurance Co., Supreme Court Case No. S269978; Appellate Court Case No. C090436; Amicus Letter of the Public Investors Advocate Bar Association in Support of Petition for Review -  8p
    • The Williams decision raises two issues of critical importance to investors.
      • The first is whether insurance carriers may be held to be responsible for the acts of independent producers who transact business on behalf of multiple carriers.
      • The second is whether there is a private right of action under Cal. Insurance Code § 785, which imposes a duty of good faith and fair dealing upon insurers and insurance agents to prospective customers who are age 65 or older.
      • Our members have seen an explosion of cases in recent years in which independent insurance agents who market themselves as financial advisors and/or retirement planners recommend to prospective clients that they invest their retirement monies into costly and unsuitable insurance products which are not regulated as securities, including indexed annuities and indexed universal life insurance policies.
        • Insurance agents frequently recommend that prospective customers liquidate or exchange their existing IRA and/or 401(k) investments and use the proceeds to purchase indexed life insurance products.
  • 2022 0718 - LC - Amicus - PIABA - Public Investors Advocate Bar Association - in Opposition to Request for Depublication of Williams v. Nat'l Western Life Ins. Co - 4p
    • Williams v. National Western Life Insurance Co., Case No. C090436, published 5/10/22 at 78 Cal. App.5th 500.
    • The Public Investors Advocate Bar Association ("PIABA") submits this letter as amicus curiae in opposition to National Western Life Insurance Company's ("NWL") request for depublication of the opinion in the above-referenced matter, Williams v. National Western Life Insurance Co., Case No. C090436, published 5/10/22 at 78 Cal. App.5th 500. ("Williams Opinion").
    • ⇒  In summary, the Williams Opinion makes the important clarification that life insurers are vicariously liable for the wrongdoing of their independent non-exclusive life insurance agents.