Ohio Department of Insurance Director Mary Jo Hudson has announced that the Department accepted the surrender of the business entity insurance agent license of National Prearranged Services Inc. (NPS) of St. Louis, Missouri. NPS has allegedly committed several violations of Ohio insurance law and Ohio Administrative Code.
“Agencies like NPS, whose actions undermine Ohio consumers’ confidence in pre-need products, will be dealt with swiftly,” said Hudson. “We want to assure a high level of integrity in all of our insurance markets.”
A Department investigation revealed that National Prearranged Services Inc. allegedly committed the following violations:
• Caused or permitted insurance customers to appoint it as a beneficiary on all Lincoln Memorial Life Insurance Company (LML) insurance policies NPS sold to Ohio residents;
• Obtained policy loans on LML policies it sold to Ohio residents without the knowledge or authorization of the policyholders;
• Solicited applications for LML policies from Ohio residents by using applications that asked the applicant whether the new policy would replace an existing policy. NPS presented the applications to Ohio applicants with the response to this question already answered “No”;
• Failed to require agents to present to Ohio life insurance applicants the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Life Insurance Buyers Guide.
All of the above allegations are violations of Ohio insurance law and/or Ohio Administrative Code. National Prearranged Services has neither confirmed nor denied the allegations but has agreed to surrender its business entity insurance license. Hudson accepted the surrender of National Prearranged Services business entity insurance license effective April 15, 2008.
Consumers with questions regarding the National Prearranged Services investigation can call the Texas Department of Insurance at 1-800-252-3439. More information about the investigation can be found on the Department’s Web site, www.ohioinsurance.gov.
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