Do You Have an Aviva or Athene Structured Settlement?
Important News About Class Action Settlement | What To Do Now
The Aviva Capital Maintenance Agreement ("Aviva CMA") was an agreement between the qualified assignment company and CGU International Insurance plc that was a form of Keep Well Agreement to reassure settlement stakeholders of a commitment to keep the assignee solvent.Aviva charged $500 for the CMA when the structures were placed. The Aviva CMA was instrumental in securing an estimated $1 billion in annuity premium be placed with Aviva USA life insurers and their predecessors.
John Griffiths, a resident of Hawaii who ended up being lead plaintiff, contacted me in August 2014 after reading my Structured Settlement Watchdog®blog. Together, we sought to get definitive written assurance of the continuance of the Aviva CMA. Based on the marketing materials that Aviva management approved and would have been filed with state insurance regulators and approved for distribution to its appointed agents and the public with issued policies, the plain language of " the obligation shall be absolute, unconditional, present and ongoing " seemed unambiguous. Yet multiple calls to the Athene customer service number by both Mr. Griffiths and I brought inconsistent answers. Something smelled fishy. After two months of foot dragging by Athene, and turfing off by Aviva, we finally received a letter from the legal department of Athene that the Aviva CMA "was terminated according to its terms". Except those terms were never disclosed to appointed agents, in Aviva approved and filed brochures and marketing materials and policy delivery packet, even concealed from front line Aviva employees that appointed agents interfaced with. Outrageous.
If you are receiving payments from what was originally an Aviva or CGU structured settlement annuity should you panic?
No , there was never any issue of solvency at anytime and this story has a happy ending.
The Settlement Class
Includes all beneficiaries of structured settlement annuities assigned to
Athene London Assignment Corporation (formerly known as Aviva London
Assignment Corporation and as CGNU London Annuity Service Corp.), which
includes all annuities covered by the Capital Maintenance Agreement
between CGU International Insurance plc and CGNU London Annuity Service
Corp. dated February 1, 2002, where such annuities remained in force as
of October 2, 2013.
Excluded from the proposed class are the officers and directors of any Defendant and members of their immediate families and any entity in which any Defendant has a controlling interest, the legal representatives, heirs, successors or assigns of any such excluded party, the judicial officer(s) to whom this action is assigned, and the members of their immediate families.
Terms of Settlement
- Requires Athene Defendants to create a new Capital Maintenance Agreement which replicates, and then improves upon, the terms of the CMA whose purported cancellation is at issue in this case. This new CMA will be backed by Athene Holding Ltd., the ultimate, publicly traded, corporate parent of all other Athene Defendants. Plaintiffs' expert has opined that the entity that will issue the new CMA is better capitalized than CGU .
- It provides cash relief in amounts totaling at least $7.3 million.
- It requires Defendants to pay the costs of notice and settlement administration up to a total of $200,000 (up to $100,000 for each of the Athene and Aviva
Defendants), as well as up to an additional $12,500 from each Defendant group for a service award, if approved by the
Court, to be paid to the named Plaintiff, John Griffiths. - It provides for an additional payment by Aviva of 25% of any amount it obtains in resolution of any claim it files against the Athene Defendants for indemnification in connection with the acts at issue in the Amended Complaint.
Keep alert for mail from the Class Action Administrator. Following Court approval and certification of class for purpose of settlement (motion was filed 5/2/2018), notices will go out via the Class Action Administrator. You are automatically opted in, but can opt-out if you wish by September 12, 2018, according to the notice (updated). It may also be a good time to review your beneficiary designation to see if it is current. Athene contracted Concentrix to do its customer service work 888-285-4332. If you want to work with your original settlement planner or with me, you will need to complete an authorization form .
Read my Blogs on Aviva Structured Settlements , for more details and a historical perspective
Read about my Pro Bono work as the Structured Settlement Watchdog ®
ONE MORE THING!
Beware Circling Buzzards Trying to Get You to "Cash Out Your Annuity"
When the wind blows in a certain direction, out come the unethical actors in the structured settlements secondary market, with a predilection to attempt to hoodwink structured settlement annuitants to sell their structured settlement payment rights for pennies on the dollar . You may receive a phone call or a mailer, or a hundred. Most of the people who contact you are unlicensed and may therefore be unqualified to provide financial advice over your important asset. Their sales practices are completely unregulated and unfortunately, many actors in the structured settlement secondary market seem to have no barometer of right and wrong.
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