Allianz Life Faces Annuity Owner Suit

A new California state court case concerns the obligations a life insurer has to annuity holders and other customers when an advisor is convicted of wrongdoing.

Layne Kramer and the Kramer Family Irrevocable Grant Trust assert in the complaint, which was filed last week in Los Angeles, that Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America should have given Kramer more detailed information after her former advisor, David Neuman, was convicted of embezzling benefit payments from another client.

Allianz Life declined to comment on the suit.

Counsel have not yet appeared for Neuman, and he could not be reached for comment.

The plaintiff: The father of Layne Kramer, the plaintiff, died in 2012, according to the complaint.

Kramer helped her mother move to an assisted living facility in Thousand Oaks, California, then looked for an advisor to help apply for Veterans Affairs benefits and other benefits for her mother.

The advisor helped Kramer apply for the VA benefits, set up a trust and bank account for the trust, and buy non-variable indexed annuities.