Prudential Faces $1 Billion Lawsuit

Prudential Insurance Co. is the focus of a lawsuit filed by 15 Palm Beach County residents who are aiming to prove the company sold bogus policies. Pretrial motions were scheduled for today, and jury selection has been set for Feb. 1.

The residents filed their own lawsuit after deciding a national class-action suit would not provide sufficient damages, David Sheller, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told the Associated Press.

“It was a lousy settlement,” he was reported as saying. “The average settlement was anywhere from $40 to a few hundred bucks.” Prudential settled the national suit in 1997, paying customers $2.4 billion, or roughly $220 each for the 10.7 million policies it sold between 1982 and 1995.

The Florida plaintiffs are accusing Prudential agents of falsely promising customers that policies would be paid for in a few years when in fact, the contracts required policy holders to pay premiums for life or risk policy lapse. The Associated Press reported that Prudential has denied the charges in court filings.

Latest Comments

• May 18, 2008 at 11:11 am

  J Floyd says:

  anyone have any experience with the Abbreviator Mod 21 policy? the policy was to new at the time Pru made settlement. the policy holders did not know Pru was deeply cutting ... read more
• April 7, 2008 at 4:41 am

  Gail Shaulys says:

  I never received notice of the original lawsuit and therefore did not participate. Later I found out about the suit but the deadline had passed. I still feel Prudential shoul... read more
• March 23, 2008 at 10:50 am

  alfred brown says:

  I never received a penny and was not given no reason why I didn't get my fair share. I invested a large sum of money and was in the law suit and was in until the end but didn'... read more