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WILLIAM R. LEVESQUEA Port Richey agent misrepresented an annuity to an 81-year-old, the suit says. She put her life savings into it, but couldn't collect for years.
CLEARWATER - A lawsuit accuses a Pasco insurance agent of exploiting an elderly Clearwater widow by persuading her to roll her life savings into an annuity from which she could not collect income until she is 92.
In a suit filed Tuesday in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, lawyers for Fern Wakulich, 81, accuse Port Richey insurance agent Bijan Razdar of negligently misrepresenting terms of the annuity.
"He totally did her wrong," Cristina Pierson, a Fort Lauderdale attorney representing Wakulich, said Thursday. "She was unsophisticated. She trusted this man."
Pierson said Wakulich, a retired records clerk with Sears, Roebuck and Co., is living on a fixed income that includes a small pension and Social Security. Before meeting Razdar, Wakulich also collected about $1,150 a month from an annuity unconnected to him, Pierson said.
Then she heard Razdar's radio program on financial topics, which is aired on Sundays as a paid advertisement on WGUL. Razdar, who did not return calls for comment, is not an employee of the station.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages in excess of $15,000, said Wakulich told the insurance agent that she needed immediate access to her retirement savings to meet living expenses.
Razdar signed her up in 2001 for an annuity sold by the Midland National Life Insurance Co., which also is named as a defendant in the suit.
Pierson and attorney John Hargrove said Wakulich paid a $9,000 penalty for cashing in her old annuity. She then used the majority of her life savings, or about $129,000, to buy a new Midland annuity.
But Wakulich soon discovered she could not collect interest income until age 92.
Wakulich needed the cash, so she decided to accept severe penalties to get money from the annuity, Pierson said. She is now paid $350 less per month than what her previous annuity paid her, she said.
During the first year of the annuity, she was not allowed to withdraw anything, the suit said.
In addition, her penalty for tapping the principal on her annuity is that she is no longer eligible to collect any interest she has earned in what she withdraws, the lawyers said.
"That's like loaning money to your children," Hargrove said. "It was a very detrimental financial transaction. The only person who benefited was the insurance agent and Midland."
Hargrove said Razdar's commission also was excessive: 10 percent to 13 percent.
Midland has refused requests for a refund, the lawsuit says.
The suit also says the insurance agent failed to instruct the woman that, by law, she had a specific time frame after purchasing the annuity to cancel the policy without penalty. Language in an annuity contract about this "free look" period was obscured, the suit said.
Wakulich and representatives of Midland could not be reached for comment.