brokerwatch

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – May 1, 2019 – A FINRA arbitration panel has awarded more than $3 million to an Alleghany County egg-farming family swindled in a variable annuity (VA) and life insurance scheme promoted by a former AXA financial advisor who was recently convicted for stealing from another elderly AXA client. The Whitesville, NY, victims were represented in the arbitration proceeding by the Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway law firm (Peiffer Wolf).

The award is believed to be the largest ever paid in upstate New York and also the largest imposed on AXA in arbitration.

The elderly victims oversaw the successful Fitzpatrick Poultry Farm in Whitesville, NY, for many years before suffering millions of dollars in damages at the hands of AXA and its financial advisor, Francesco Puccio, formerly of Webster,  NY. Puccio was affiliated with the AXA office in Rochester.

At a news conference today, PWCK released a FACT SHEET showing a disturbing pattern of AXA problems throughout Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, and upstate New York.  The Peiffer Wolf fact sheet documents multiple complaints, settlements, regulatory actions and fines involving AXA and AXA brokers, including the victimization of 81-year-old Scottsville, NY, widow Shirley Kerwin, who lost her entire life savings to the same AXA broker who cheated the Whitesville egg-farming family.  Puccio was later found guilty of stealing from Kerwin.

Peiffer Wolf  has helped thousands of investors who have suffered substantial losses. If you have Variable Annuities or Life Insurance Products in your investment portfolio, Contact Us by calling 585-310-5140 or by filling out an online Contact Form.

The elderly victims suffered millions of dollars in damages at the hands of AXA and its financial advisor, Francesco Puccio. Puccio was affiliated with the AXA office in Rochester, New York.

Speaking to her separate claim against AXA,

The egg-farming couple fleeced by Puccio did not understand the nature of the variable annuity and life insurance products in which they invested millions of dollars. In what should have been a clear sign of their lack of sophistication, the Fitzpatricks were found to have earlier insurance policies stacked in egg carton boxes and did not seem to be aware they existed.  Instead of helping them, Puccio rolled those old policies into newer and larger ones that paid hefty commissions to him.  The total commissions paid out in just one year to Puccio was well over $200,000.

One of the more damning moments of the arbitration hearing occurred when Puccio was caught impersonating a Fitzpatrick family member on an audio recording and then had to admit he established a fraudulent email account to pose as the eldest member of the family.  That same day he sold yet another life insurance policy to the Fitzpatricks.

Peiffer Wolf has extensive experience in handling investment fraud cases in upstate New York and across the U.S.

AXA:  ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG SEEN SO FAR IN NEW YORK STATE CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS?

AXA is a company that is particularly dependent on variable annuity (VA) sales.  According to published data, the company’s $373 million in VA revenues in 2017 accounted for 47 percent of total revenues, ranking AXA #4 in the nation.

As one consumer watchdog told Congress:  “Award-winning personal finance writer Liz Pulliam Weston has called variable annuities ‘the worst retirement investment you can make.’ Another industry commentator has called them ‘one of the most overhyped, most oversold, and least understood investment products.’ And one analyst, who each year compares the performance of variable annuities to an alternative approach using low-cost index funds, estimates that variable annuities transfer approximately $25.6 billion a year ‘of spendable investment returns’ from vulnerable investors to the insurance industry and its sales force.”

Not surprisingly, AXA’s emphasis on pushing VAs on unwary investors has triggered widespread concerns, including from New York regulators:

In addition, AXA has consistently attracted the attention of the industry self-regulatory organization FINRA:

But it is two recent cases – the new $3 million arbitration award to retired egg farmers in Whitesville, NY, and a pending case involving the entire life savings of an 81-year-old widow in a suburb of Rochester, NY. – point to serious problems in upstate New York that may only be the tip of the iceberg of AXA sales abuses related to annuities.

Compounding the problem is that AXA has shown no hesitancy to employ or extend the employment of problem brokers with troubled backgrounds:

There is troubling additional evidence that consumers in the Buffalo/Rochester/Syracuse region are being exposed routinely by AXA to other brokers with backgrounds that raise multiple red flags.  According to Broker Check records available online from FINRA: