Former West Virginia Prudential Agent Sues over Company’s Alleged Quotas

A former Prudential agent sued the insurer in a West Virginia Circuit Court Wednesday, alleging the company’s quota system drove him out of business.

Billy T. Bush Jr. became a Prudential insurance agent in 1992 and opened an office in Gauley Bridge, W.Va. The suit alleges that in 1997, Prudential imposed a minimum annual quota on agents called Net First Year Commission Credits.

The company allegedly said it would terminate any agents who failed to meet their sales quotas. In 1998, Bush was told he had not met his quota. In the suit, he outlines the reasons Prudential can fire an agent after that agent has been employed five years. Bush alleges none of those reasons are present in his case. The suit maintains that Prudential terminated Bush for failure to meet the quota, and that action violates West Virginia law.