by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
Seneca One Finance promoted unlicesned individuals as ” Annuity Specialists” in consumer facing roles, despite being emrely a purchaser of structured settlement payment rights (receivables) which are not annuities
According to an October 5, 2016 Maryland Federal judicial opinion, Seneca One Finance, Inc. v Kris Bloshuk, in September 2013, Kris Bloshuk began working at Seneca One as an “Annuity Specialist’. USCOURTS-mdd-8_16-cv-01848-0.pdf
Annuity Specialists ‘manage day-to-day relationships with structured settlement annuitants”, and create and build relationships with customers and prospective customers. According to the Maryland Insurance Department, Kris Bloshuk did not possess a Maryland Insurance producer or adviser license. Visit MD Licensee Search.
Misleading Use of the term “Annuity Specialist” by Seneca One
- “As exemplified by tasks assigned to Annuity Specialists, Seneca One’s approach to customer service is intensely personal, compelling Annuity Specialists to work hard to earn their customer’s trust and create customized financial solutions to fit each customer’s needs” [ Complaint at paragraph 14]
- “After working with an Annuity Specialist, a customer elects to sell a portion of his/her payments to Seneca One”.
- “Kris Bloshuk was employed as an Annuity Specialist from on or about September 2013 to on or about March 1, 2015, a role under which she continued most of the duties she carried out as an Annuity Specialist but took on the additional tasks of managing other Annuity Specialists“
Why was Seneca One’s use of “Annuity Specialist” misleading?
Upon hearing the term “Annuity Specialist” in relation to an unlicensed employee of Seneca One, it is reasonably foreseeable that a consumer might incorrectly assume the individual emplued by Seneca One holds a license or certification that the employee does not possess or has not earned.
- The Institute for Business & Finance offers a certification program called Certified Annuity Specialist (CAS). The CAS program consists of six modules
- Each module takes 23 hours or less to complete
- Materials include all study and exam preparation
- There are three non-cumulative exams and one case study
- A written case study is required
- The case study is based on a one-page fact pattern provided by IBF
- The case study answer must be two to five pages
- Mandatory continuing education.
That Seneca One, a member of the National Association of Settlement Purchasers, would use a term that conveys something that its employees are not is deplorable. This is exactly the sort of thing that Brian Frosh, the Attorney General of Maryland needs to be looking into. I first reported about this in 2009. Why has it taken 7 years?
Other “Kaka” Flung by Seneca One
2015 Seneca One pushes the canard of unlocking $5K of your money“, when ultimately it will cost you more than $5K to get the $5K
2014 Seneca One stalks consumers with its bogus National Structured Settlement Registry, a massive honey trap for the NASP predator.
2016 Seneca One is a co-Defendant with JG Wentworth in the dreadful Kyle Stibb exploitation/dissipation case, filed August 16, 2016 in King County Washington Superior Court.