Bloomberg reporters Gary Cohn and Darrell Preston have won an award named after the most prestigious names in contemporary investigative journalism.
Through public documents and scores of interviews, reporters found that the world’s largest organization for seniors collects hundreds of millions of dollars annually from insurers who pay for AARP’s endorsement of their policies. The insurance companies build this cost into premiums they charge AARP members. AARP sometimes also holds client insurance premiums as long as a month and invests the money, the reporters found.
"Beginning with a complaint by an individual AARP member, Bloomberg Markets goes on to surprise the reader with a number of revelations about an organization whose conduct and organizational lifestyle had previously been taken for granted," the judges said.
That's not the half of it. When you receive an AARP solicitation in the mail, mark it return to sender.
Here's the juicy story http://www.bloomberg.com/...
that won the silver Barlett & Steele Awards, named for the famed investigative team of Donald Barlett and James Steele.
Here's a taste of what the article by Cohn and Preston says. Read it for a real awakening. If you don't want to be hosed, don't join AARP and definitely don't buy insurance from AARP.
When Laupus, 71, compared his car insurance rate with a dozen other companies, he found he was paying twice the average. Why? One reason, he learned, was because AARP was taking a cut out of his premium before sending the money to Hartford Financial Services Group, the provider of the coverage.
Laupus stumbled onto something that many members of the world’s largest seniors’ organization don’t know: The group, formerly called American Association of Retired Persons, collects hundreds of millions of dollars annually from insurers who pay for AARP’s endorsement of their policies.
The insurance companies build the cost of these so-called royalties and fees, which amounted to $497.6 million in 2007, into the premiums they charge AARP members, according to AARP’s consolidated financial statement for that year.
There's much, much more. For example, when you buy health or car insurance from AARP, you wind up paying double what you would on the open market.
Read the entire story here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
Damn good piece of investigative journalism.
AARP sucks.
Giving money to AARP is like writing a check to the Republican Party.
Don't do it. Friends don't let friends join or support AARP.