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May 17, 2016

Athene Encouraged to improve Structured Settlement Service to Aviva, CGU Annuitants

by Structured Settlement Watchdog

Dreadful hold time to get service from Athene Annuity today for a structured settlement annuitant who thought a payment had been missed . Fortunately it wasn't.  But I was on hold for over 9 minutes with just music, no status updates, no number of callers ahead of you etc. Fortunately I was multitasking. Eventually someone did pick up, but they had no authority to speak to me, only the annuitant. So I asked them to contact the annuitant and was told that they don't call them , the annuitant calls in. Ugh!

Athene Annuity acquired the Aviva USA life companies in a deal that closed in October 2013.  There has been an insufficient amount of communication about the deal to Aviva structured settlement annuitants. It took two months to get a straight answer about the Capital Maintenance Agreement (CMA), associated with qualified assignments to Aviva London Assignment Corporation in 2014. As I have previously reported, there is a class action law suit pending against Aviva in Massachusetts related,  to the concealed from annuitants termination of the Capital Maintenance Agreement that was an intrinsic part of the marketing materials published and distributed by the company during the years it solicited US consumers and businesses.

Athene's inattentiveness about the CMA is in stark contrast to the exemplary level of responsiveness I have so far received from Wilton Re, which acquired the Continental Assurance Company (CNA) structured settlement block. Wilton Re actions demonstrate an overt concern with the consumer in the acquired block.  I am currently researching how the CNA Financial guarantee plays out post spinoff. Like the Aviva CMA, the CNAF was marked with an extra cost. 

What Athene Should Be Doing With The Aviva Structured Settlement Block

I encourage Athene to:

  1. Set up a structured settlement annuitant online interface. At the very least an annuitant should be able to download administrative forms required to change a bank account, start direct deposit, change beneficiary, change address.  Surely such an interface would help reduce on hold times, allowing for essential calls to come through on a timely and acceptable basis.  
  2. Options are available on commercially available systems for someone to be placed in a call back queue and then receive a call back when a customer service rep is free.  American Airlines does just that. So instead of getting frustrated by the thought of a long hold time in the event of a weather delay, you simply place your phone number in the queue and get a call back

 

 

Posted at 07:21 PM in Athene Structured Settlements, Aviva Class Action Lawsuit, Aviva Structured Settlements, CGU Structured Settlements, Structured Settlement Industry News, Structured Settlement Watchdog® |

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  • Firmwide Qualified Settlement Funds Debunked
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