Mass. family at center of suit

Mass. family at center of suit
By Nan Levinson
Globe Correspondent / October 4, 2010

Kevin Lucey was at the wake for his son, Jeffrey, a Marine who had committed suicide at their Belchertown home in the summer of 2004, when military officers presented him with a stack of forms to sign.

~snip~

Several months later, on the advice of a colleague, Kevin Lucey decided to withdraw the money and invest it more profit ably elsewhere. The paperwork had included what looked like a bank checkbook, so he wrote a draft for the balance. Prudential took nearly a month to send the money, he said.

Only much later did he learn that Prudential had never deposited any money in his account, instead investing it as part of its general account and passing on only a small portion of the interest earned, he said.

Infuriated, the Luceys agreed to put their names on a class action lawsuit against Prudential on behalf of all beneficiaries of dead soldiers and veterans who had requested lump sum payments. The suit, filed in federal court in Springfield in July, alleges that Prudential enriched itself at the beneficiaries’ expense by withholding lump sump payments and keeping an unjustifiable amount of interest.

An amended complaint, filed Aug. 29, added fraud, accusing Prudential of abusing the trust of the families by misleading them and withholding important information. Six more beneficiaries, including an Army colonel, were named in the suit, but it potentially affects tens of thousands.



unhappycamper comment: Here is a previous thread I posted on the Pru's doins:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=9198405