| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| City | Waco |
| Address | 204 Woodhew Drive |
| Phone | 1-800-368-5569 |
| Website | www.lifepartnersinc.com/ |
I have the same situation like so many other investors. This particular investor listens the radio show featuring Jeff Bolton in the DFW, Tx area. I listens the radio show called "PRESERVING YOUR RETIREMENT" by cowley financial in Forth Worth. I have purchased several policies in 2008 and paid tens of thousands upfront. I am still paying thousands of dollors each year until don't know when?????. All of the sudden, LPI decided to come up with new fees called : "PLATFORM SERVICE CHARGE".
I received a bill in Oct, 2014 and the charges stated" billing period is for Sept -13 to August-14. Sounds ridiculous. They just come up with the idea to extort more money from invenstors and back billing investor for 2013??
Anyone knows any class action lawsuit against this Lift Partner Inc?. Do not listen to this "PRESERING YOUR RETIREMENT" show because it is a "LOSING YOUR RETIREMENT" SHOW.
We were looking for a safe investment with reasonable expectation of positive returns. LPI got our attention through a radio show featuring Jeff Bolton in the DFW, Tx area. All of their advice over the radio seemed conservative and well researched. The hosting station, had a good reputation so I made the call and a licensed representative agreed to come to our home to give us details on viaticals and Life Partners Inc.
He was about as smooth as any sales person I had ever met and my wife also almost immediately trusted him. He spent the next few hours explaining to us how viaticals worked and why LPI had an edge in the industry. He spoke of a Doctor specifically engaged by LPI to gather medical data and a huge staff of researchers that had put together statistics for them. He also told us he was personally, heavily invested in viaticals through LPI.
Again, the rep told us LPI had "the edge". They had purchased only the policies with the very best possibility of maturing in only 3 or 4 years or less. Initially, we felt the whole program was a bit morbid, depending on the deaths of it's clients asap. He made us feel very comfortable with that particular part of the program, explaining to us that these wonderful, wealthy Grandparents were being afforded the chance to spend their money as they saw fit, before dying.
He showed us that, according to LPI, there was a high possibiity of huge returns on our money in just a period of 4 to 6 years. Of course, he said there would be a few that would defeat the stats by living longer, but by buying interest in as many policies as possibilities, we would be hedging our bet. For each policy portion we purchased, we had to pay esgrow for policy payments over a certain initial period. That time has long since expired. After that, we would have to pay premiums on policies until they matured. According to the rep, any expenses incurred for future payments would be easily covered by policies that had matured in the first 2 years or so, leaving a handome profit for us. He made it clear to us that LPI's fees were set and would never change and as we understood it from reading the contracts, that was true
Everything sounded great. Walt explained that never had a life insurance policy more than two years old been denied payoff at death, evern it was discovered after 2 years that the insured had obtained the policy with false medical information. "Never". As our initial evening progressed, the representative continued to ease any concerns we had.
By the time HE left that evening, My wife and I had purhcased interest in several policies invloving a lot of cash. That cash was withdrawn from our retirement accounts in a matter of just a few days. As it turns out, the initial payment to LPI was the only thing that has happened as promised. We are now receiving letters from LPI, demanding higher anual fees, threatening to forfiet our investment if we don't pay. In other words, as this investment becomes less and less attractive, LPI, with apologies of course, wants a bigger piece of the pie in order to cover their losses while we get left holding the bag
Our investment with LPI began in 2008, over 6 years ago. As of today, only one of the many policies we purchased has matured and the profits from that maturatation fall way short of even covering payments now due on policies in the amount of thousands of dollars.
Here is what puzzles me. If these viaticals were such wonerful investmemts, why then, would not someone, perhaps even LPI, not be willing to return at least our initial investment and take over the policies. We have after all now suffered the loss projected income on our money. It seems to me that if they were such a great investment, buying them would be a great deal for somebody. If even half of what they told us was true initially, then these viaticals should be ripe for the picking of some savvy investor. Instead, LPI will not touch them while only demanding more and more fees. I don't get it. Perhaps we did not deal with honest brokers who had done their homework. Or, maybe they did do their homework and saw a chance to milk retired folks out of their money.
I understand that there is risk in investment. The way it was presented to us, the only "possible" risk was making less that 6 % per year. Either they don't know what they are doing or they were not honest with us and their in house "Doctor" provided them with some pretty bad information.
LPI Partners sent a letter on October 14, 2014 to its investors demanding payment for managerial services for 2013-2014 for $255 (my original investment on the viatical was $5,000). Say what? There was NEVER any verbiage in the original two documents regarding any right to impose future charges. And it's even more infuriating that LPI is trying to bill in arrears for services I didn't even know I was getting. LPI served as the agent to enable purchases of portions of a life insurance policy of an individual who was HIV positive/diagnosed with AIDS in 1995. He was not expected to live more than 18-24 months. That was 19 years ago. I'm happy to report the individual is still alive, but LPI has been nickel and diming its investors for hidden costs that were never mentioned in the contract. In fact, paragraph 3.01 of the Policy Funding Agreement states:
"LPI'S fees for all services provided in the performance of its duties shall be complete and inclusive in the policy purchase deposit and the PURCHASER will not incur costs of any type beyond the amount tendered as the policy purchase deposit." It further states, "After purchase, LPI shall have no further specific duties to Purchaser, but LPI shall use its best efforts to assist Purchaser, if requested, in any way possible."
So how can LPI bill me for a service I never requested? A second 3-page letter was sent by LPI thirteen days later as, I'm sure, their investors replied with disbelief and disgust at this hidden charge. I'm so glad I'm not alone in my anger at this company for trying to bill its investors just because it has had extravagant legal fees in the last two years due to lawsuits, etc. If you read articles on the Internet about this company, one can conclude LPI might be getting ready to go bankrupt and this is its last-ditch effort at staying afloat.
I, for one, do not plan on sending this company one more penny. I've been paying $18 quarterly to pay for the life insurance premiums for the past 17 years since the HIV insured has lived beyond two years. By the way, this also was never mentioned orally or in the contract that we would incur costs for insurance premiums if this scenario was to develop. When I wrote a letter back in 1998 about not wanting to pay for my percentage of the insurance premiums, Brian Pardo, the Chief Executive Officer, retorted back with a snotty letter about my signing a contract that said I warranted that I'm sophisticated in financial matters, etc. That's fine. That part of the contract is about my ability to lose my initial $5,000 investment and have no need of liquidity of the investment. I always knew I could love $5,000.
At this point, I've paid an additional $1,244 in insurance premiums for a total of a $6,244 investment. If the insured should die tomorrow, I will be paid $6,106. A loss of $138. If I start paying $255 annually and the insured lives another ten years (which is highly feasible), that would be an added loss of $2,550 along with another ten years of insurance premiums totalling $720. This is ridiculous. LPI needs to admit they made a mistake buying HIV patients' life insurance policies (which they no longer do for obvious reasons) and return their investors' monies. We were misrepresented and I refuse to participate in their extortion.
Please feel free to share any info or experiences regarding this LPI madness. Thank you.
We are getting hit with fover $ 500 in fees from both Life Partners AND Provident Trust for the same $ 10,000 "IRA" - we originally bought from Sun America and never even agreed to (or would have) to a viatical...we never even heard of that word until years after purchasing a "self directed IRA". This company has $47 million in fines for defrauding investors...we have 2 children with health issues, almost lost one this year...I am so afraid
Approximately 20 years ago we invested $5,000 in a viatical with LPI. The investment broker who sold us the fractional ownership in the policy claimed the life expectancy of the insured was 2 to 4 years. Not only have we nothing to show for our investment, we have to pay premiums on our share of the policy every quarter and today we received a letter saying we would have to also pay an annual fee for their bookkeeping software and administration of the policy. In doing some research, it appears to me that they have deliberately misled investors about the life expectancy of the insureds. Now, I will probably lose money on this investment, made even worse by the time value of money for the past 20 years and the lost investment opportunities that I could have alternatively invested that money into. Stay away from Life Partners, Inc.!
In 2005 we were lead into buying part of a life insurance policy on a indiviual that had a expected life left of 3 to 5 years.
I paid 18,000. out of our savings and was told if that we would receive around 30,000. after the 5year period but we should know that it could be longer. the oringal policy is a 1,000,000.
Over time we tried to find out the status and was told it was a brother and brother policy and the other brothe was still alive. At the 7 period a statement was sent saying that we needed to start paying a annual premium. It wasnt that much so to not lose our savings we paid. And we paid.
Now starting in Jan. 2015 they are also charging me a maintenance fee.
I receive statments for premiums and fees but they wont ever give me any information.
I cant afford to lose my investment. I need help to stop the ripoff. If only I had never given them my money. im getting old, mad and I feel like such a idiot.
+These folks took over 150,000 of our money and it's not looking good. shame on them
This company has been ripping off for 10 years,I was told that I would get my money back in 24 months or less;for about 7 years they where charging me hefty sum just to hold my money,they then gave it back to me and that was better but now they want to start charging a large amount of money for holding it for me I have tryed to sell it but no one is as stupid as i was it is making me wish I had never got involved with these people especilly since they have doubled the premiums
I was very interested in the product - as it was primarily for people with AIDS and would allow those folks to borrow
against their life policies to assist in their quality of life. The product was sold with an estimated termination period of
the policies. I understand actuarial numbers and understand some miscalculations. But what I do not understand is
not being off by a few months or a couple of years; but way past that timeframe; and now are asking for additional
money to keep the policies in effect. LPI does not respond to phone calls or letters - BUT they sure can send out
bills for payment and now they are adding on additional services and demanding payment for those as well. When
I was made aware of a class action lawsuit being filed - I asked them (in written form) for information - No response!
Now that they show that the class action has been dismissed - they are sending out bills like crazy...at this point I am
not sure what they are billing for.
These folks take a product that should be "giving something back" to being the "product from hell!" And they
are still operating "business as usual!"
I am so disappointed the initial agent Kunio Okui out of Castro Valley, CA made his commissions and when the s--- hit
the fan - he referred us all to LPI direct and washed his hands of the LPI folks.
Obviously a bad investment - please keep my money and let me go free. This request was made in one of
the letters sent to the LPI folks with "no response!" Most folks have made a bad invesment or two - but these
folks will not let you go. Most of the investors will probably die before the initial policyholders!
Approximately 20 years ago we invested $5,000 in a viatical with LPI. The investment broker who sold us the fractional ownership in the policy claimed the life expectancy of the insured was 2 to 4 years. Not only have we nothing to show for our investment, we have to pay premiums on our share of the policy every quarter and today we received a letter saying we would have to also pay an annual fee for their bookkeeping software and administration of the policy. In doing some research, it appears to me that they have deliberately misled investors about the life expectancy of the insureds. Now, I will probably lose money on this investment, made even worse by the time value of money for the past 20 years and the lost investment opportunities that I could have alternatively invested that money into. Stay away from Life Partners, Inc.!