IC warns public vs scam: Unlicensed insurers Golden Age, Benevolent preying on seniors

The Insurance Commission (IC) on Monday, Nov. 25, warned against two companies that sell pre-need and insurance products to senior citizens, as these firms were just spinoffs of previously shuttered companies.

In a statement on Monday, Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa said the IC had found that Golden Age Elderly Care Inc. and Benevolent Care Program Association were “mere continuations” of Majar Senior Citizen Damayan Inc. as well as Majar Insurance Agency and Business Ventures Inc.

The IC issued cease-and-desist orders against Majar Damayan and Majar Insurance in 2015 and 2017 as these two companies had sold insurance and pre-need products without secondary licenses.

Also, Funa said the two shuttered companies “had been enticing the public to pay a membership fee in exchange for insurance coverage, health care services, and burial cash assistance, among others.”

Despite the cease-and-desist orders, however, the two companies continued to lure gullible clients “through other entities under different names,” the IC said.

Funa, in the statement, added that an investigation showed that Golden Age and Benevolent Care “were formed to evade” the orders issued by the commission.

He said the deception became clear when the supposedly two new companies “assumed the collection of payments” under fraudulent insurance contracts issued by the shuttered firms to their victims.

“Considering that the operation of these companies have been illegal from the beginning, they do not have the right to hold the money of their members,” Funa’s statement said.

The companies, he said, have no licenses from the IC.

Funa added that these companies were “under obligation” to return the money to their victims “regardless of whether such members have filed claims for refund.”

Funa already asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate and file charges against the erring insurers.

Edited by TSB