RAAs: Reputational Outbreak has Begun

To say that the ball is in Bloomberg's court on RAAs is a bit of an understatement. Bloomberg, and anybody that agrees with it or thinks by default that the industry is up to no good, is determining the public conversation on this issue. So far, we've seen some tepid industry response, like the ACLI's canned statement on RAAs when the story first broke, but honestly, who is really going to read something like that? Certainly not the people the ACLI need to convince. And therein lies the problem.

As it tries to remain above the ugly fray of public opinion making, the industry puts itself in a no-win situation. It, led by companies such as Prudential, can descend into a public street brawl with Bloomberg and Cuomo and look like a company that has something to hide, or it can remain silent on the issue and look like a company that doesn't care that the little people think the Rock and its industry peers are a huge confederacy of thieves. This is a Gordian knot of public outreach if ever there was one.

I have spoken with numerous life industry professionals over this, and they uniformly express how distressed this thing makes them. but there is also a sense of resignation, too, that no matter what they do, they will be cast as villains by lazy journalists, opportunistic politicians, and knuckleheads commenting from the sidelines. But does it really have to be this way? The life agent is the one who carries the most water on this, ultimately, for it is he or she who must confront a preconceived notion in the back of their clients' heads every time they meet with them. Sooner or later, all this stuff catches up with the agents (as well as the carriers and everybody else in the industry), and it's a damned shame, honestly.

Below are some comments I've excerpted from the followup discussion on FARK's reposting of the Bloomberg story. A lot of it is crazy talk, ill-informed and more than a little bit profane. At least one of the comments looks like it came from a Prudential employee. And another makes an oblique death threat against Prudential in general. But this is what folks are saying about your industry, people. It is unvarnished opinion from the same people who will one day vote for guys like Cuomo and sit on class action juries, so take heed. Maybe what we need is for folks who support RAAs to sound off on the topic and generate some counter-buzz. Because if you look for comment on RAAs right now, the only thing you're likely to find are things like this:

some farktards need to go to prison for this shiat and Prudential should be forced to cough up all the interest they collected doing this shiat…

Get a piece of the rock…and profit from American war dead while you're at it!

Interesting reading. It will be even more interesting to see how Prudential is defended in this by our in-house corporate flaks.

And if you're a Republican, you have to support Prudential's actions here. you have no choice, this is your philosophy. you have to support corporate america's 'right' to abuse anyone or anything in the name of profit.

Man, If I was surprised about anything it would be that they didn't find a way to hawk the tombstones for a little extra on top. Maybe sell some diamonds made out of cremated soldiers, I dunno. I'm not surprised at all by anything some farkwit financial organization does anymore.

Shoot 'em, hang 'em then fine 'em

Aha! Now I know who wa funding Rev. McBurneyKoran. Dead soldiers is BIG MONEY!

Send the Prudential^TM cocksuckers to Afghanistan.

Prudential Securities Incorporated – Investor fraud during the 1980s and 1990s. These scumbags rely on the public's short memory.

Find a way to take the profits back from Prudential and return it to veterans by funding programs to help them. PMITA ("pound me in the a**" – Ed.) prison for the people from Prudential and the VA who did this. You just KNOW the VA people got kickbacks from Prudential. Verbal agreements when you're dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars? And when the contract specifically states all changes must be in writing??? At least the communists and other tyrants and dictatorships, when people got too corrupt, would convene a firing squad. I wonder if some military sniper with PTSD, is going to help out by terminating, with extreme prejudice, some of these crooks?

As someone who just had their benefits cut by the VA (from 30% to 10% and the loss of all the benefits that includes), due to "financial issues" from the VA, I have to wonder now what OTHER "secret deals" they've struck with other companies? Is the money that I'm due – since that was the farking contract I signed with the US Government; I fight for you and you take care of me if I get hurt or killed – sitting in some other interest-earning hedge fund where some random corporation can make money off of it? It makes me VERY stabby. Utterly farking inexcusable. Somebody needs to be shipped off to Afghanistan for this shiat…then when he gets hurt over there, we promise him money only to deny it so somebody else can earn some interest on it.

If I was the insurance commissioner of that state, I'd be rubbing my hands at the idea of fines on each policy handled incorrectly over those 10 years. It could meet the budget of the entire department of insurance next year.

I just met with 3 Prudential VPs and their CFO yesterday about this very subject so I'm getting a kick…. End game, the money is payable on demand, in full, the minute you get your draftbook, according to Prudential. And at that meeting was a representative of Gold Star Wives. Look them up. Her take was, "I couldn't imagine anything more painful than when I had to go deposit the check that I got in return for my husband's life. At least with the draftbook, you don't have to do something with the blood money within 90 days." She didn't say blood money, but you get the idea. Totally changed my perception of this whole thing.

Oh, and I'm a vet and lots of my buddies have had loved ones collect benefits under SGLI and VGLI; I was as infuriated as anyone when I heard about this the first time (this is the 3rd bloomberg article on the subject, btw; I couldn't get either one greenlight).

Heheh [Prudential] hired Jack Bonner and Associates. Look them up. Known gangster, the type of guy who you don't want to cross. Gave a pretty good luncheon yesterday, though.

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So there you have it. The question is…what are you going to do about it? The comment box awaits your thoughts. Now is not the time to be silent.