Overview
For close to three decades, we have been at the forefront of defending life insurance and annuity issuers and other financial services companies in every major genre of litigation affecting the industry. Such representation includes national litigation challenging the determination of cost of insurance rates and other non-guaranteed elements, "vanishing premium" and other life insurance and annuity sales practices/market conduct cases, ERISA fiduciary duty suits, and litigation over lender-placed insurance. Our lawyers not only understand the legal issues relevant to these cases but also have a deep background in our clients' products, business practices, and regulatory challenges. We work closely with our colleagues in other practice areas, including the firm's Financial Services Regulatory, Class Actions, and Securities and Enforcement Litigation practices, to ensure we bring the highest level of expertise to every matter.
As a result, the industry knows us well. Our lawyers have represented the vast majority of the top 25 life and annuity companies (by assets) in class action and high-stakes individual product cases. The firm has represented dozens of national and international insurers in hundreds of class actions throughout the United States. Indeed, our clients have consistently recognized us as among the top "go-to" firms for national class action and high-stakes litigation for the life insurance industry.
We have appeared as lead counsel in state and federal courts in nearly every state, including in appeals in all 12 of the federal circuit courts of appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court. But we are not simply litigators: our lawyers are prepared to try cases. We defended as lead counsel what is believed to be the largest jury trial of a certified national class action involving the life insurance industry, a case involving a nationwide class of approximately 400,000 annuity contract holders seeking $2 billion in damages, in which the jury returned a verdict for our client.
Cost of Insurance and Other Challenges to Non-Guaranteed Element Determinations
We have extensive experience defending the life insurance industry in matters involving challenges to insurers' determinations regarding the cost of insurance (COI) rates in fixed and variable universal life insurance policies, including litigation regarding COI rate increases.
We have defended against challenges to insurers' exercises of discretion with regard to other non-guaranteed elements, e.g., interest/dividend crediting, and expense allocation-related claims.
Sales Practices - Market Conduct Litigation
Our litigators have wide-ranging experience defending insurers in lawsuits alleging the improper sale or marketing of life insurance and annuity products.
Our attorneys have dismissed, settled, and won trial victories in class actions claiming, inter alia, that the sales of annuities and long-term care policies were misleading; that life insurance policies were marketed as having "vanishing premiums" and/or were improperly replaced; that the insurer allegedly violated the TCPA; and that plans were improperly sold as complying with Sections 412(i) and 419 of the Internal Revenue Code.
ERISA Fiduciary Duty Litigation
The firm's practice in this area is devoted to representing insurers, financial institutions, and employee benefit plan sponsors in the areas of class action and other complex litigation, financial product development, regulatory compliance, and regulatory monitoring and advocacy.
We have extensive experience litigating fiduciary and prohibited transaction claims, as well as other alleged violations of ERISA and other federal and state laws in connection with the management of pension or welfare plan funds, the provision of trust, custodial, actuarial, accounting, and other services to plans, and the administration of employee benefit claims.
Lender-Placed Insurance Litigation
Competing groups of class action lawyers have filed approximately 150 high-profile class actions in venues all across the United States challenging aspects of lender-placed insurance programs (LPI). A team of our lawyers has represented the largest LPI underwriting group of specialty insurers, and several banks and servicers, in defending these cases.
In addition to achieving early dismissal of several of these cases (at both the trial and appellate levels), the LPI litigation teams have developed an effective settlement strategy for the defendants, and implemented that strategy in nationwide settlements for most of the major lenders and loan servicers.
