Insurer Drops Firm From STOLI Suit

By Matt Brady

July 25, 2008 at 01:11 PM

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A life insurer has removed a wholesale insurance brokerage from a lawsuit filed in connection with allegations involving stranger-owned life insurance transactions.

AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, New York, a unit of AXA S.A., Paris, has agreed to remove Life Brokerage Partners L.L.C., Oldsmar, Fla., from a list of defendants in a STOLI lawsuit, according to Life Brokerage Partners.

AXA Equitable representatives were not immediately available to comment on the announcement.

AXA Equitable filed a suit in June in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

In the suit, AXA Equitable has accused several defendants of participating in an effort to procure life insurance policies for STOLI arrangements.

"AXA understands that LBP had no involvement in the policies AXA has challenged in the suit," Ravi Malick, president of Life Brokerage Partners, says in a statement. "LBP faithfully adheres to all of its legal and ethical duties and responsibilities to its insurance clients and the companies with whom LBP works."

The removal of Life Brokerage Partners as a defendant should be taken as a sign that the firm does not condone or engage in STOLI transactions, Malick says.

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