NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch has filed an $8.5 million lawsuit against Pacific Life Insurance Company, alleging the insurer engaged in deceptive practices and failed to disclose the true risks associated with a life insurance policy he purchased.
Busch, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, said he believed he was buying a secure life insurance plan designed to provide self-funding income for his retirement. However, concerns arose when he received a sixth premium notice on what he understood to be a five-year payment plan, and most of his investment had disappeared.
“I was like, wait a second, what am I getting a sixth-year premium payment for?” Busch said Saturday at Phoenix Raceway, as quoted by the Associated Press. “We got on a call with the guy who sold me the premium policies and he ran me around in all these circles, couldn't answer the questions, so I was like, ‘this is fishy’.”
After Busch and his wife Samantha consulted an independent firm, they learned their policy would expire in 16 months and that the $10.4 million they had invested would be lost.
The Buschs’ lawsuit alleges Pacific Life failed to reveal the true risks of the policy and made false and negligent representations regarding what was supposed to be tax-free retirement income. According to Busch, he was told that by paying $1 million annually for five years, he would be able to withdraw $800,000 per year starting at age 52. Instead, he learned the funds were going to the insurance company’s account rather than being invested in the market, resulting in no growth as the market rose.
“That was a lie,” Busch said on the eve of NASCAR’s season finale. “I looked at it and was like, this sounds too good to be true, but you’ve got to believe in those that are looking at it for you and trusting in the people with Pacific Life email addresses that are sending you the documents.”
Pacific Life, in a statement, declined to comment on the specifics of the case, citing client privacy. “For nearly 160 years, we have committed ourselves to fairness, integrity, and acting in the best interests of our clients - and we continue to take this responsibility very seriously,” the company said. “Pacific Life offers several different life insurance products, each with unique characteristics that are important to understand before making a decision.”
The disputed product is an Indexed Universal Life (IUL) insurance policy, which combines a death benefit with a cash value component tied to a stock market index and is marketed as having protections against market downturns.
Busch’s attorney has identified other individuals who have lost their investments in similar IUL products. “These insurance companies are too big to be (messing) with the little people, so we're going to go at them,” Busch said. “It's not just race car drivers or athletes or rich people of the world and this is why we're going public with it.”
The lawsuit also names Pacific Life agent Rodney A. Smith, alleging he steered the Buschs into an unsustainable, high-risk product and collected an up-front 35% commission, which the Buschs claim they were not made aware of.
“I was like ‘wow’, before my money even went into Pac Life, the guy got 35% commission,” Busch said. “That was after the fact.”
