California insurance regulators say problems with unauthorized product sales at Wells Fargo bank branches may have affected some sales of term life insurance.
Wells Fargo bank employees without insurance agent licenses were supposed to refer customers to kiosks in the branches, and let customers interested in term life or renters insurance sign up for coverage on their own, according to officials at the California Department of Insurance.
In some cases, officials say, bank employees seem to have signed the customers up for simplified-issue term life policies without getting the consumers' permission.
Department officials believe California bank employees signed customers up for at 187 unauthorized policies from Great-West Financial from 2010 through 2014, and 18 unauthorized policies from a unit of Prudential Financial Inc. from 2014 through 2016, according to a document the department filed with California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones.
A copy of the pleading is available here.
Jones said in a statement that the department looked into the matter because of allegations former Prudential employees made in a whistleblower lawsuit.
