On Tuesday, Senate Republicans invited Primerica President Peter Schneider to testify against proposed regulations that would protect retirement savings from sketchy financial schemes — and it didn’t take long before he wished they hadn’t. The Huffington Post’s Zach Carter reports that Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wasted no time in embarrassing Scheider, whose outfit is precisely the sort of sketchy financial scheme that the legislation is designed to protect the elderly against. After he argued that his company acts “in a client’s best interest,” Warren lit into him.
“Mr. Schneider, I just want to understand your company’s advice in these cases,” she said. “Do you believe that people like these firefighters from Florida who are near retirement and have secure pensions with guaranteed monthly payments, should move their money into riskier assets with no guarantees, just before they retire?”He never directly answered her very direct question, even though she asked a version of it three times. The closest he came was to argue “each situation is very different,” and that his firm offers its risky investment opportunities to people who could benefit from it, like retirees on the brink of death.“I’m sorry, are you suggesting that these 238 people were weeks away from dying, and that’s why they all got this advice?” Warren asked, referring to the number of people Primerica was forced to settle with to the tune of $15.4 million in 2014.
