American Family Prepaid Legal Corporation

[Tax Man]

10/14/2009

The Ohio Supreme Court imposed nearly $6.4 million in fines against American Family Prepaid Legal Corporation and Heritage Marketing and Insurance Services Inc. and their co-owners, Jeffrey and Stanley Norman, and directing the companies to cease all operations in the State of Ohio. These penalties resulted from the Columbus Bar Association's efforts to curtail an illegal trust mill scheme that preyed upon Ohio's elderly population and involved the unauthorized practice of law by non-lawyers.


In the lawsuit, the Columbus Bar Association alleged that, over a number of years, American Family and Heritage Marketing ran a trust mill scheme in which they and their agents convinced thousands of Ohio senior citizens to pay nearly $2,000 for allegedly discounted prepaid legal services, which were never provided. Instead, the only product customers received was a living trust and other estate planning instruments, which, in many cases, were unnecessary or inappropriate to meet the customers' legal needs. To convince customers to buy, agents used aggressive tactics during in-home presentations that took advantage of customers' advanced age. They also used marketing materials that misrepresented facts, deceptively exaggerated the disadvantages of the probate process to frighten customers into purchasing living trusts, and overstated the need for and cost of attorney services during the probate process. The combination of tactics employed by the agents created a high-pressure, deceptive sales pitch to which many vulnerable citizens fell prey. Those citizens were often further victimized as a result of the companies' follow-up visits, which pressured customers to buy follow-on products such as insurance services and deferred annuities. Because the scheme resulted in non-lawyers offering legal advice, the Columbus Bar Association stepped in to protect the public.

[johnlee]

At first I never expect that it will go to $6.4 million in fines against American Family Prepaid Legal Corporation and Heritage Marketing, maybe they got a new plan for this matters.



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[Osvaldo01]

Pre paid legal helps people settle their legal issues. People have to pay a small fee every month to use these services. You can use their services whenever you want. The fee will be around 30$ every month when compared to regular attorney who charges 100$ every hour.

[wserra]

We have discussed Prepaid Legal here, albeit not in great detail. The issue is to what extent the services people will likely need are actually covered by the monthly fee.

Welcome to Quatloos, Os, but please be aware that the rules do not permit commercials.

[ihanna]

At first I never expect that it will go to $6.4 million in fines against American Family Prepaid Legal Corporation and Heritage Marketing, maybe they got a new plan for this matters.



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Mod: Link deleted. The linked site brings up a virus warning and the connection was blocked

Can you cite a sample plan that APLCH Mktg maybe planning? I am doing this for my weekly report in history. Can you please help me and elaborate more about this? I am really juiced up, I have used all my knowledge and I can't still come up with a solution, tomorrow my due. Please help me dude.

[wserra]

Here is the one that Ohio enjoined.