Allstate Insurance Co. has sued Ameriprise Financial Services in federal court, alleging that Ameriprise is poaching
Allstate employees – and attempting to get trade secrets out of them.
According to the lawsuit, Ameriprise hired several of Allstate’s “exclusive financial specialists,” who work with agents to sell life insurance products. Allstate claimed that Ameriprise used customer information and business plans provided by the specialists to convince Allstate customers to switch to Ameriprise. The specialists are blocked from taking information by employee agreements, with that information including sensitive customer data. However, Allstate said that the agreements haven’t stopped Ameriprise.
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“Indeed, Ameriprise’s actions have been so blatant and outrageous that Ameriprise has encouraged (the specialists) to lie to (Allstate) and (Allstate Life Insurance Co.) about their theft of AIC and AILC confidential information,” Allstate said in its lawsuit.
According to Allstate, the exclusive financial specialists are bound by agreements in which they promise to keep customer information confidential and not to sell competing insurance products for a year after the terms of the agreement end. The lawsuit claims that Ameriprise approached Allstate specialists in several states, offering them hundreds of thousands of dollars in signing bonuses to leave the firm.
Ameriprise also asked the specialists to bring their customer lists and other documents along to their new jobs, the suit claims.
The lawsuit accuses Ameriprise of stealing trade secrets, unfair competition and interfering with business relationships. In addition to damages, Allstate is demanding that Ameriprise be barred from using any confidential information and compelled to return any information in its possession.
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