Certain insurance companies have been conning our soldiers—especially the new recruits—into buying near-worthless investments. Among other things, they hire retired officers to go in and give “compulsory briefings” that are actually insurance sales pitches, where, in one example, soldiers are told to sign papers they haven’t read and aren’t allowed to keep, which they are told are “investments” but turn out to be life insurance. And not just life insurance, but life insurance that costs over 6 times what soldiers are paying for the army-provided life insurance and provides less than 1/6 the coverage.
The Pentagon has turned a blind eye to this practice since at least the Vietnam War, when an Army reporter broke the story, and despite repeated internal investigations that have shown rampant improper practices has consistently refused to do the one thing that would ensure that this not happen: ban the insurance agents from the bases. The most recent report, in May 2000, caused the Pentagon to appoint a commission, whose final report is due soon, but whose draft report, the New York Times reports, says banning the agents “is not an option.”
. . . barring sales agents from bases is not the solution, said Frank Keating, the former governor of Oklahoma, who is president of the American Council of Life Insurers, a lobbying group.
“Anything that is unethical or inappropriate should not exist, period,” Mr. Keating said. But “someone who is mature enough to fight and quite possibly die for their country,” he added, “should be freely able to decide how much and what kind of life insurance they should have.”
That argument does not satisfy people like Capt. James A. Shaw, commander of the Second Battalion’s 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment at Fort Bragg, N.C. In his experience, he said, the training that produces competent soldiers may make them vulnerable to a disguised pitch from a friendly agent in the classroom who is a veteran.
“It’s an environment where you do what you’re told,” Captain Shaw said. “They are learning stuff that will save their lives in combat. Those classes are the law.”
When the topic switches from weapons maintenance to personal finance, he said, “there’s no real reason to suspect otherwise."
These insurance companies and their agents are the scum of the earth, and the Pentagon is worse for not taking immediate appropriate action. I wonder if there’s a class action lawsuit here . . .
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Shame on you.
