This website was established to provide information about a settlement in the proceeding known as In re American Investors Life Insurance Co. Annuity Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation – MDL Docket No. 1712.

The settlement involves deferred annuities that were issued from January 1, 1998 to July 28, 2009 by American Investors Life Insurance Company Inc., AmerUs Life Insurance Company which is now known as Aviva Life and Annuity Company, or certain of their predecessor companies.

The persons and entities that received in the mail the Notice of Class Action, Proposed Settlement, and Fairness Hearing are not being sued. They received the Notice because they were listed as being a current or former owner of a deferred annuity policy that is included in the settlement. The Court directed that the Notice be sent to them because they had a right to know about the settlement, and their rights and options under the settlement, before the Court decided whether to approve it.

The settlement provides for certain benefits to members of the settlement Class. For a description of those benefits, see questions 12 and 13 of the Notice or, for a brief summary of the benefits, see questions 4 through 7 of the Frequently Asked Questions. The settlement also includes certain “non-economic” relief in the form of undertakings made by the Defendants relating to the manner in which annuity and other insurance products offered by American Investors Life Insurance Company and AmerUs Life Insurance Company (now known as Aviva Life and Annuity Company) are marketed and sold.

The lawsuit and the settlement do not mean that the companies that issued the deferred annuities included in the settlement are in financial trouble or that any of these annuities are in jeopardy. The settlement may make available some additional benefits relating to these annuities, but nothing about these annuities will change as a result of the settlement without instructions from the owners of the policies.

The settlement provides for General Policy Relief and allows for participation in a Claim Review Process through which Claim Process Relief may be available.

After a Fairness Hearing held on November 6, 2009, the Court issued an Order giving final approval to the settlement on December 18, 2009. A notice of appeal of the Court’s Order was filed on January 19, 2010. The appeal has been dismissed, and the Final Settlement Date is March 4, 2010. Implementation of the settlement will proceed in accordance with the Stipulation of Settlement.

The General Policy Relief, basic and enhanced, will be available for implementation starting not later than 90 days after the Final Settlement Date – i.e., June 2, 2010 – subject to the terms and conditions that apply to the benefits. It is anticipated that the resolution of claims submitted to the Claim Review Process will be completed within a year after the Final Settlement Date, but the timing will depend on the number of claims received and the number of claimants who contest their scores.

The settlement involves several hundreds of thousands of polices, so please be patient.

A copy of the Notice can be downloaded by clicking here. Other documents relating to the settlement, including the Stipulation of Settlement and the Court’s Order approving the settlement, may be viewed at the “Settlement Documents” page.

You may obtain further information about this settlement by clicking on the appropriate link(s) on this website. If you have questions about the settlement, you may call the Settlement Administrator at 1-877-506-4027 (1-866-494-8402 for the hearing-impaired) from Monday through Friday, 9:00 A.M. (Eastern) to 7:00 P.M. (Eastern).