The fraudulent or abusive cases of the VALI products
| Intermediary | Country | Event Year | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lina Tanaka and William Worth | United States | 2009 | Lina Tanaka, an insurance agent, and William Worth, a former insurance broker, were involved in a scheme where they sold variable annuities to elderly investors and then churned their accounts to generate high commissions. Churning refers to the excessive buying and selling of securities to generate commissions at the client's expense. They targeted senior citizens, convincing them to switch annuities frequently, which incurred high surrender charges and fees, severely depleting their investments. |
| MetLife | United States | 2016 | The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined MetLife $25 million for misleading customers about the costs and benefits of variable annuities. MetLife made misrepresentations and omissions about replacement variable annuity transactions, leading customers to believe that new annuities were more advantageous when, in reality, they often carried higher costs and less favorable features. This resulted in customers incurring significant fees and charges. |
| Raymond James Financial | United States | 2014 | FINRA fined Raymond James Financial $8.25 million for failing to adequately supervise the sales of variable annuities. The company was found to have inadequate systems and procedures in place to ensure that the variable annuity sales were suitable for their clients. This lack of oversight led to instances where customers were sold annuities that did not meet their financial needs or investment objectives. |
| AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company | United States | 2015 | AXA Equitable was fined $20 million by FINRA for making misstatements and omissions regarding the fees and potential benefits of variable annuities. They misled investors about the costs of transferring their existing investments into AXA’s variable annuities and the associated benefits, which caused financial harm to many investors who trusted their recommendations. |
| Waddell & Reed | United States | 2005 | The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), now part of FINRA, fined Waddell & Reed $5 million and ordered restitution of $ 11 million for failing to supervise the sale of variable annuities. The company allowed brokers to recommend unsuitable annuity exchanges that generated high commissions but resulted in significant financial losses for clients due to surrender charges and other fees. |
The Enabling Functions of Recent AI Systems
| Enabling function | Elements of BDML | Applications |
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| Face•Object Recognition |
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| Gaming |
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| Language Recognition (LLM) |
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| Academic Research, and R&D (Exploratory Science) |
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