Regulators Announce Seminar Consent Order

By Staff Writer

News October 30, 2007 at 10:39 PM

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The Utah Division of Securities has imposed a $100,000 fine on an insurance agent in connection with the division's concerns about the agent's retirement planning seminars.

Utah Securities Division officials allege that an agent misled seniors who attended his seminars.

The agent advertised the seminars as retirement education seminars, but they really were sales presentations for variable annuities and a few other products that he was licensed to sell, Utah division officials allege.

The "seminars were designed to make seniors believe they could purchase investments that would earn almost all of the increase of a rising stock market and protect them against any decreases in the stock market," officials allege.

The individual failed to disclose important information about the fees and withdrawal penalties associated with the variable annuities he was selling, officials allege. The agent "admitted that some of his advertising and portions of his seminar presentations were misleading," officials say. "He did not admit or deny the other findings of the division."

In addition to agreeing to pay the $100,000 fine, he agreed to stop selling variable annuities, to stop holding securities-related seminars, and to offer refunds to customers who did not fully understand what they were buying, officials say.

Editor's note: The agent had his record expunged in 2016.

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