We have decades of experience representing life insurance, annuity and retirement product companies and their distributors in litigation, regulatory enforcement and compliance matters. Those matters have arisen from almost every aspect of the development, pricing, marketing, underwriting, sale, administration and claims handling of whole, universal, variable and indexed life insurance, as well as variable, fixed and indexed annuity contracts and retirement products.

In particular, we regularly defend clients in class, derivative and individual actions claiming securities fraud, unfair and deceptive trade practices, bad faith, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, ERISA violations, and other federal and state causes of action. We also regularly represent insurance companies and industry trade associations in administrative law, constitutional and preemption-based challenges to statutes and regulations at the federal and state levels. We have defended clients in litigation alleging improper disclosures or other allegedly problematic sales practices, suitability or product performance issues, excessive product fees and charges, unlawful sales and executive compensation or third-party compensation arrangements, improper fund substitutions and “mapping,” excessive market value adjustments and fixed income spreads, improper policy administration, sale of annuities into tax-deferred retirement plans, market timing, bid-rigging, compliance deficiencies, discrimination (including disparate treatment and disparate impact allegations), and other matters. We have also advised and defended clients in matters that involve state departments of insurance, state attorneys general, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and have represented clients in litigation challenging regulations issued by the US Department of Labor and actions by the Financial Stability Oversight Council.