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Lawsuit Says Those Gerber Life Insurance Plans Are Completely Worthless - YouTube
Channel: The Ring of Fire
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Anybody who's ever spent any time watching
daytime TV or if you watch any game shows
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in the evenings, I guarantee you, you have
seen commercials for the Gerber Life Grow
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Up Plans.
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We all know that phrase.
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We have seen these commercials.
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A lot of us remember them from the sick days
back in school when you'd watch the Price
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Is Right, you'd always see these commercials
everywhere.
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Not many of us understood what they were or,
you know, what it even did.
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But according to a new lawsuit, that's because
these plans really don't do anything at all.
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Joining me now to talk about this is Scott
Hardy with Top Class Actions.
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Scott, I grew up on these commercials, you
know, the Gerber Life Grow Up Plan, the Gerber
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Life College Plan, and I'll admit once I had
kids, I thought, you know what, maybe, maybe
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this is a type of thing I should look into.
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Maybe it's something I should do.
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And if this lawsuit is, is, is telling us
the truth, which we have no reason to necessarily
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doubt it, I'm very glad I didn't do that because
these plans might be essentially worthless.
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Yeah, I was surprised by this.
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I remember, you know, I've got two kids just
like you, we would, we see these commercials
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all the time.
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See the Gerber Plan, Gerber is such a well
respected brand name out there that we think
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that it would be a trust, you know, truthful
advertisement that, you know, we can, you
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can buy.
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And a lot of people are putting their money
into these plans and according to this class
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action they have, they're getting nothing
out of it or very little.
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You know, it's gotten to the point now where
it's not just a Gerber Grow Up Plan where
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people think that they're putting this money
in.
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Well, if they put their money in for the Grow
Up Plan for this nest egg and they paid $260
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in premiums, it's only actually worth 27 bucks.
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That's it.
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So it's a massive net loss for the consumer.
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And I think what really kind of grinds me
is that Gerber is pushing a College Plan now
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and the college plan functions similarly,
but really only pays out if the kid dies.
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Otherwise, this college plan doesn't have
any characteristics that let it function as
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a college savings plan.
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So you are much, much, much better off if
you have a kid, you have a grandchild that
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you, that you want to help save for, start
that college savings plan, do not go with
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Gerber on their college savings plan because
it's not going to actually put that money
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towards your grandchild's college fund.
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And, you know, that's what these class actions
are alleging and trying to fix, is get that
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truth back in marketing.
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And if they're going to market this as a College
Plan, make sure that money is going towards
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that kid's college and that they don't have
to die for it to pay out.
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And a lot of the reason that these plans are
attractive to people is because they think
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that, okay, well this obviously as you said,
it's a well-respected brand.
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This is more of an investment type thing because
I could take this money that I was going to
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pay each month and just put it into a savings
account.
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And then when the child turns 18 it's, here
you go.
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This is the college money I've saved up for
you.
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But no, we think, okay, well this is more
of an investment.
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They know what they're doing.
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They know how to handle money.
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I don't understand any of that.
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I'm going to put it in here.
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This is going to pay off 10 fold and my kid
or my grandkid is going to be taken care of.
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But if this lawsuit, again, if it's correct,
they'd have been better off putting that money
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into the savings account because as they calculated,
even if you were to pay on the Grow Up Plan
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for 40 years, you would still have less money
in the Grow Up Plan than if you'd just put
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that monthly payment into a regular savings
account for the child.
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Exactly, you know, some of these are showing
that it would be less than 55% of the money
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they put in.
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So you're putting this money in every month.
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You're thinking that it's actually a kind
of a savings plan, that it's not just an insurance
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premium and 55% of that money you put in is
gone.
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That's profit.
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That's take, you know, that's all going to
the business and it's not going to your loved
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one.
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And, you know, it just goes to show that when
you're looking at anything that's an insurance
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plan, anything that's a savings plan, you
have to find out and read through the fine
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print to find out where your money is going.
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How much is that broker keeping?
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How much is that salesperson keeping?
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You know, what is actually going to go into
your account that you'll be able to collect?
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There's just so many bad fiduciaries out there
that you have to be so careful.
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And I think that's, that's kinda the big thing
that we have to understand as a public too.
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Obviously there's lots of different financial
institutions out here.
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There's lots of different companies that,
you know, say, give us your money, let us
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invest it.
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And at the end of the day, depending on what
the purpose of that money is, sometimes it
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is better and safer if you simply take what
you can and put it into a savings account.
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I mean, you may not get, you know, a 20% return
on investment as you could possibly do if
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you had a great stock broker but that money
is going to be there.
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Right?
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The money in the savings account is not going
to go anywhere.
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You're not going to risk losing all of it
or, you know, not having it be able to be
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withdrawn because there wasn't a time frame
met and oh the kid's still alive but, so he
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can't get it because it was actually an insurance
policy.
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You avoid all of that with just putting it
into a savings account.
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Again, not going to get as much of a return
but there's pretty much zero risk that you're
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not going to be able to access that money.
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Exactly, they have tax deferred saving, college
savings plans, which actually do invest in
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the stock market because, you know, if you
put, that baby is born and you're a grandparent,
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you want to put 1000 bucks or 100 bucks or,
you know, you want to put $50 a month into
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that plan, you can put that money in there
and that money will go to your child, to your
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grandchild.
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And that money will grow along with the market.
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Or if you just want to play it safe, just
like you said, put that in a savings plan.
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Get that 2%, 3%.
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Know that in 18 years when that child is going
to go to college that, that they will have
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money and hopefully a good start to be able
to start their college education.
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Absolutely.
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So for more information about the Gerber Life
class action, follow the link in the description
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of this video.
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Head over to Top Class Actions and if you
haven't already done so, make sure you sign
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up for their weekly newsletter.
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Scott Hardy with Top Class Actions, always
a pleasure talking to you.
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Thank you.
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You're welcome.
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Thanks for your time, Farron.
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