In April 2010 Bankers Life Agent talked me into converting a long term policy into a home care/life policy. He had me make out a check for $221 and Bankers Life deducted from my checking account $219 the amount on the old policy I made these two payments in April, the Agent swore up and down I would not have to make a payment in May, they stole the May payment out of my account anyway I had to cancel my checking account to prevent any more theft. I never received the New Policy. They never returned my money.

For those who are thinking of joining Bankers Life and Casualty as either an agent or as a client I need to put you on RED ALERT.

This company is not what they say and is all talk and no action.

After 13 years of management I hit a crossroads in my life. BLC called on me for a "new and exciting career that would allow you live the lifestyle you always dreamed of." I was suckered in. I never wanted to make $100000 a year. I just wanted to make a decent living to maintain the lifestyle that I had. If I worked up to 100+K a year great!!

After signing the paperwork to start was when it all started going downhill. As a new agent you have to give up 20% of your commission to the office to help pay for "leads". 20%!!! At first I didn't worry. We were all told that the average commission was $500 and that the "average" agent sold 8 policies a month. I'm thinking no problem. HA. The reality is that the "leads" we bought were recycled leads (people who responded to BLC mailers and either couldn't be reached, had already been seen, didn't qualify for anything and sometimes already purchased a policy). Sometimes the leads didn't even have a phone number, which meant having to drive to their house and door knock them or send them a letter. All of course out of our pocket financially. Sometimes we were just given a list of what was called Non-Responders. These were folks who didn't respond to the mailer and we were to call on them to set the appointment. The majority of these folks didn't respond due to being on Medicaid or they were to sick to get anything with BLC even if they wanted to.

If you were able to sell anything it usually was for much less than the $500 a policy that was "average". It was also very apparent that policies were canceled much more than expected. When this happened we were charged the full amount of commission that was given INCLUDING the 20% that was taken away to help pay for "leads". So, if I sold a policy and received $1000 for the policy I in reality on received $800. If it was canceled, I would have to pay BLC back $1000. This in turn caused me to then sell $1200 in commission just to break even again. More often than not we were working for free at BLC.

That is just the agent side of it. If you were a client it was even worse. I didn't file many claims but the ones that I did were a nightmare for me. The very first claim I filed on behalf of a client was for a Home Health Care plan. BLC will not even look at a claim for 30 days!!! On day 55 I got an ear full from both of the children as to why a decision was not made either way and I turned it over to the Branch Mgr. It took another 10 days before they finally decided to take care of the client. 65 days!!! How would it make you feel to see your parent/grandparent suffer for 65 days before the checks started to come in?

Another client filed a claim on her Home Health Care plan for installation of a ramp to her home. The claim was sent in on December 2nd. I called on January 2nd to see if there was an update. Nothing. I called again on February 2nd. Nothing. I called on February 16th. Nothing. I then turned it over to the Branch Mgr again for him to call. March 2nd. Nothing. She finally received word that BLC would pay the claim around April 2nd. 120 DAYS!!!

Everything takes 7-10 business days before they would even look at it. I, as an agent, would follow up on the 7th day and usually heard the following, "the person to look at this hasn't. I'll send this up to escalation. Please call back in (you guessed it) 7-10 business days." Again, I'd call on day 7 (some 3 weeks by the calender) only to hear that it needed to be sent to escalation AGAIN!!!

When the Branch Mgr was asked about this his response was simply that claims/resolutions take time and we have to be patient. Easy for the Branch Manager. He is/was not the one getting his head ripped off.

I have more stories and nightmares to share but these are more than enough to scare the Hell out of anyone.

With all that being said. Do not, under any circumstance let any Bankers Life and Casualty person tell you that they are a great company to work for or to entrust them with your well being. You will only regret it in the long run. If I can save just one person with this blog it was well worth the time.

I was so delighted at first setting up my elderly mothers annuity plan and life insurance, then the mistakes started happening, the checks didnt come as planned it took 3 months for the payments to begin, and then I got 2 at a time, not knowing one was the real check and one had a different account on it. Thank God I didnt cash them. Once the mystery of the double checks were solved and the income annuity was coming in, I talked my brother into joining and setting up an income annuity for himself, he is in the enstages of COPD, his checks never did come in, he demanded his money back and got it, (lucky him). Now that mom is very ill and is not going to be with us much longer I need more money to pay for a facility. On the 6th of April, I signed papers to cash in one policy, and change my address, by the 20th of April the Annuity Dept got my paperwork, (yeah in this day and age of electronic transmissions you would think it would have gone faster than the ponyexpress) I was promised that I would get paid by the 17th of May. So I waited... On the 18th of May I started calling, it didnt help that my agent would not return my calls so I felt I was in it alone. Finally when my agent did answer his phone, he said he would call in the morning, the next day I found out that the check was issued to my old address, so the post office returned the check to the company, not sure why they didnt forward the check to my new address everything else was forwarded, the annuity dept had the correct address on the paperwork submitted yet they still sent the check in the amount of $25, 000 to the wrong address, such incompetence! Now after my 5th call to the annuity dept I was told it was still in process of being reissued and would not be sent out until Monday. When my mom passes I will pull whats left of her money out and reinvest it into savings bonds it my take longer to mature but by God I know where they are. I would not recommend Bankers to my enemies much less to anyone who is looking for a secure future.

I was an agent with Bankers Life. My income was restricted by the new Branch manager through control of leads I paid for and assignment of agents to me.
I resigned.
This is an office of 7 to 15 agents. In the past year this office has gone through over 30 agents and three managers.
Bankers is aware of the financial situation they placed me in.
I live in Kentucky so they are filed a law suit against me in Chicago knowing I could not afford a lawyer or the constant trip to Chicago as a result of my association with them.
The suit is base on the fact that this same branch mangager is stating that a client said that an agent said that I told them to stop by.
I am an easy target.
Can anyone help?

I worked for Bankers for a little over 6 months. During that time I was promised leads, training, and a mentor. What a bunch of crap. The training was on my time with my family (weekends). My mentor had only been an agent for 4 months. And the leads were given out in a favoritism type of manner. I had 20% of all my commissions taken for leads and when I wrote policies on people who I found on my own with no help from leads, 20% was still taken. The most horrible thing was that if the policy was canceled for any reason and the money was taken back from me, I did not get back the 20%. The only thing that ever mattered to management was that we make a sale and it didn't matter how we did it. Forceful selling tactics are nothing to this company, they are a way of life. I have numerous bankers policies and when the one year is up where I can not get charged back for the commissions, I will be canceling each of them. I have read some of the other complaints and have seen everything they mention from the hiring tactics to not paying on a claim because of some loop hole they come up with. Their products are not even competitive in the market, they are higher priced than most others out there. Do yourself a favor and find a reputable company to get your insurance needs satisfied through.