Agent’s License Revoked for Defrauding Senior Citizens

California Insurance Commissioner Harry Low revoked the license of former insurance agent Raymond Michael Graney, who did business as Team Concepts Insurance Services. An administrative hearing on Graney’s licensing rights revealed various misrepresentations toward several clients, most of whom were senior citizens.

After three days of intense hearing proceedings, Graney surrendered his license and failed to cooperate by end his participation in the hearing. Given the nature of Graney’s wrongful acts, Commissioner Low decided to finish out the hearing in order to obtain a revocation on Graney’s record. The Accusation and Order detailing Graney’s misrepresentations revealed the agent defrauded several victims and earned significant commissions in the process.

For example, Graney sold a 73-year-old widow five annuity policies, and as a result of her relying on his misrepresentations, she suffered a loss of $166,080 in surrender penalty provisions. Meanwhile, Graney made $139,554 in commissions from the case. In a similar situation, Graney sold a 75-year-old housewife four different annuity policies which all contained surrender penalty provisions. In this case, the woman suffered a loss of roughly $36,680, while Graney earned about $26,765.

Additionally, the order describes how Graney aided and abetted an unlicensed person to sell an annuity to a 74-year-old woman. And if that wasn’t enough, Graney then failed to obtain the annuity policy even though he deposited her $2,000 check in his trust account.