Agent in the Clink: Update

Last week, we reported on the unfortunate case of Aloha State insurance agent Kathleen Kau, who was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for raiding her clients' insurance policies. We wondered what kind of life insurance policy came with a checkbook (as described in the original article), and reached out to the reporter and to TransAmerica.

We were unable to connect with the former, but yesterday got this answer from Cindy Nodorft (she's in Transamerica's Corporate Communications area):

"Thanks for your inquiry.  I’ve learned that the policy at issue was part of a block of business assumed by Transamerica Life Insurance Company that allowed policyholders to obtain policy loans.  This practice was discontinued in about 2005."

I guess that makes sense, although I'd never heard of carriers issuing checkbooks with loans. It strikes me that this sounds more like a line of credit than a typical loan, but at least we now have an answer.

Thanks, Cindy!