Bankers Life chargeback to a former employee

[Aaron Barkley]

After I left the company (because I am going back to school), a couple policies that I sold are no longer being paid because the policy owner, for whatever reason, decided to stop paying for the policy.

I am now receiving letters saying that I am in debt the amount of commission that I made from the policies that were cancelled. I really need this money for school and I cannot afford a lawyer or time to go to court because I need to focus on school.

How payments usually work is if a policy is cancelled after commissions have been paid, future commissions are not paid until the previous amount has been recouped by the company (basically an advance on commissions if I was paid for a policy that was eventually cancelled).

I am no longer contracted as an employee for Bankers Life. Can they actually take the money back that was rightfully paid to me because, through no fault of my own, the person I sold policies to no longer is paying for them?

" The Bankers Life and Casualty Company agent contract provision '13 Refunds' states that whenever a premium has been refunded to an applicant or policyholder, the Agent agrees to immediately return to the Company any commissions received on the amount refunded. Therefore any commission that is unearned at the time the policy cancels will be due and payable by the agent regardless of the agent's current status with the Company (i.e. active or terminated). "

This is a part of the contract I signed but how can they actually enforce the chargebacks? I would greatly appreciate any former Bankers employees to reply with their experiences about similar situations.

 

[Norwayguy]

You received an advance on your commissions if the person stops paying premiums you have not as you put it rightfully earned the money.

 

[fed up]

Having worked for Bankers Life, and having seen the nonsense that goes on when someone leaves, you need to find out who cancelled. Bankers must supply you with this information. Then contact the customer and see if they cancelled or if the policy was "rewritten" by a current agent. You are not responsible for advance commission if the company rewrote the policy and Bankers managers routinely send the new block of agents out to anyone you wrote in an effort to rewrite the policy. The new agent should not receive a commission on a rewrite. You will most likely find out that a majority of the cancellations are company rewrites ( a plan N for a plan F or something like that). I left under good term and was hit with chargebacks about 3 months after I left. 100% of the chargebacks were because a new Field Manager rewrote my Med Supps and LTC policies. They threatened to take me to Court until I showed them what their agents had done and they then went silent.

 

[Aaron Barkley]

I contacted some of the (former) policy owners and they stopped because it was too expensive. So the chargeback are legit and I cant afford them because I used some of the commission to pay for tuition. I am really worried about a lawsuit or something of the sort because I can’t afford an attorney and don’t want this to affect my credit. Will these settle if I offer what I am able to pay (about 2-3k)?

 

[goillini52]

I contacted some of the (former) policy owners and they stopped because it was too expensive. So the chargeback are legit and I cant afford them because I used some of the commission to pay for tuition. I am really worried about a lawsuit or something of the sort because I can’t afford an attorney and don’t want this to affect my credit. Will these settle if I offer what I am able to pay (about 2-3k)?

1st thing you have to do is communicate with them. Try to work out a payment plan.

 

[fed up]

I contacted some of the (former) policy owners and they stopped because it was too expensive. So the chargeback are legit and I cant afford them because I used some of the commission to pay for tuition. I am really worried about a lawsuit or something of the sort because I can’t afford an attorney and don’t want this to affect my credit. Will these settle if I offer what I am able to pay (about 2-3k)?

Get a list of ALL of the policies you wrote and start contacting ALL of the customers. You WILL find cases where your business was rewritten. Point out these cases to Bankers and they back off. You are going to find out that one of your "friends" from Bankers was given a list of your customers to visit

 

[billyb]

You are not going to get the company to excuse this debt. Contact them and agree to payment plan or this will haunt you in the future. They will report you to Vector. No difference than borrowing money from the bank and not paying it back.