Some Conseco life insurance policy holders may be subjected to illegal, steep premium increases.

Investigation into complaints by policyholders against Conseco Life Insurance who have recently been notified of a dramatic increase in their premiums and a demand for a large cash payment to make up an alleged shortfall in the policy's funding.

This premium increase primarily affects males over 60 years of age who initially purchased their policies from other insurance companies, such as Massachusetts General Life, which were later purchased by Conseco. The premium increase is likely due to an insurance pricing scheme known as the R-Factor. The R-Factor is basically a discounting of mortality charges based on things such as age, risk class and net amount at risk. The amount of the R-Factor discount is directly comparable to the cash value in the policy, i.e., the more money in the policy, the bigger the "discount" off mortality charges. The theory behind the R-Factor was that by putting large amounts of cash inside a policy the company had more to invest thereby allowing the insurer to make more spread on investments.

It is believed that Conseco has re-configured and re-priced the existing policies by doing away with the R-factor. Eliminating the R-Factor discount greatly increases the mortality cost in the policy. In 2003-04, Conseco adjusted thousands of policies by removing or reducing the R-Factor, thereby dramatically increasing the premiums to thousands of policyholders. This resulted in multiple class action lawsuits which were resolved in a class action settlement in 2007. If you own, or owned, a Conseco Life Insurance Policy (or a policy later purchased by Conseco) and recently received notice of a premium increase and/or shortfall, and would be willing to discuss your experience with us,we would like to speak with you.