Life Settlements from Conestoga Settlement Services

April 2020: Several of the defendants moved to stay the case pending arbitration.

January 2020: A federal judge granted arbitration as to one of the named plaintiffs (Dee Neukranz) and denied arbitration as to the other named plaintiff (the estate of Lloyd Neukranz).

July 2019: This case was transferred from state court to federal court. (Case No. 19-cv-1682, N.D. Tex.)

June 2019: A class-action lawsuit was filed against Conestoga Settlement Services, a company that buys life settlements and then sells fractional interests in them to investors, for allegedly operating a life settlement investment scam. The complaint claims that the company:

• Falsely represented that the investments were “safe,” “simple,” “predictable,” and “designed to always win” when, according to the complaint, they were not;
• Misleadingly marketing that the cost of the insurance policies would remain the same over the lives of the insured person without disclosing that the insurance companies could raise premiums and other fees;
• Falsely represented that the company mitigated the risk of life settlement contracts by maintaining enough funds in escrow to cover future insurance costs when, according to plaintiffs, there was not enough funds in escrow to cover such costs;
• Misrepresented that the life expectancies were conservative and based on good-faith estimates and disinterested medical underwriting when, according to the complaint, the estimates were “systematically underestimated;” and
• Understated the annual premiums that investors would be required to pay if the insured person outlived escrowed reserves.

(Neukranz et al v. Conestoga Settlement Services, LLC et al, Case No. DC-19-08025, Texas State Court – Dallas County)