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A 74-year-old woman is suing RHOC alum Vicki Gunvalson for financial elder abuse and fraud. Get all the details.
Page Six reports that “Vicki Gunvalson is being sued for financial elder abuse, negligence, and fraud in a lawsuit filed by a 74-year-old woman who was a client of hers and her Coto Insurance company.”
In May, Diane Field filed a lawsuit at the Superior Court of California in Orange County, claiming that the Real Housewives of Orange County OG and her business partner, Ali Hashemian, took advantage of her.
Field claims that she and her late husband, George Field, had a combined net worth of $6 million from investments in stocks and funds she inherited from her deceased mother in 2002.
However, when her husband became “seriously injured” in a bicycle accident that same year, Field took the reigns of managing their finances and her inheritance.
In 2016, Field claims she was advised to put the funds into an Allianz 222 annuity, which should have helped reduce taxes and ensure a steady flow of returns.
The complaint states, “Diane has always left the money in this account (it has never been touched) for the sole purpose of growing it for her daughter.”
Then, in 2019, Field met Vicki Gunvalson at a dinner hosted by her Coto Insurance company, and the OG of the OC allegedly took a keen interest in her vast wealth.
Vicki allegedly promised Field a “safer diversified plan” that would also “help lower the taxes she had been paying” and increase “future/potential financial capital for her children.”
Field admits that at the time, she was extremely vulnerable as she was dealing with “anguish and trauma” due to her husband’s declining health.
She claims that Vicki Gunvalson and her Coto Insurance partner, Hashemian, advised her to invest in life insurance but notes that they “failed to tell her how much it would cost and instead focused on why it would be a good deal.”
Hashemian allegedly told Field that a “one and done” deal of $300,000 would cover a $6,000,000 payout for her family when she eventually passed away.
However, Field now says that the agreement was “intentional, misleading, and false misrepresentation” because the $300,000 payment was an annual fee and not a one-time payment.
In December 2019, Field signed the deal “in reliance on Gunvalson’s fraudulent sales tactics” mixed with “the despair Diane was suffering from as George’s health was spiraling.”
By February 2021, Field allegedly felt her hands “were tied up” when she asked for another $300,000 payment. She paid the amount because she felt like she had “no other choice.”
Then, when her husband passed away in October 2021, Vicki Gunvalson and Hashemian allegedly persuaded her to transfer her late husband’s money into a separate annuity account, claiming it would benefit her.
In February 2022, Field then paid another premium of $300,000. However, by December of that year, Field recognized that she went into her deal with Vicki feeling “uninformed,” noting that the agreement would “tie up large sums of money for a long time that she may never be able to use, for maybe longer than she will live or will be too old to enjoy,” according to the complaint.
“These were all unanswered questions that Diane never received an explanation about,” the lawsuit further claims.
Field continued to experience more trauma in her life when she was diagnosed with lung cancer in September 2022.
By April 2023, Field expressed her disappointment and inked a new deal with a premium payment of $100,000. This new deal would give her a $3.6 million death benefit for years four to 10 and then a lower death benefit of $1.45 million starting in year 11.
However, Field says she had to sell some of her stock in order to make that $100,000 premium payment.
When April 2024 rolled around, and another $100,000 was due, Field claims Vicki Gunvalson began calling her “repeatedly” to remind her of the payment.
Yet when Field directly contacted Allianz, the financial services company behind her annuity account, a rep told her that “she does not have to send any payment in at all” because she had an “excess” of funds in her account.
The lawsuit concludes, “Defendants planned and engaged in their pattern of elder financial abuse with malice, oppression, and fraud.”
In response to the lawsuit, Vicki Gunvalson’s lawyer told Page Six that the Bravo star is denying the claims.
The official statement read, “Victoria Gunvalson is a well-respected insurance broker with more than 34 years of experience. She has helped thousands of clients. Ms. Gunvalson vehemently denies each and every allegation of Diane Field’s Complaint against Ms. Gunvalson and Coto Insurance Services.”
“Ms. Gunvalson followed the direction of her client, Diane Field, in placing the insurance products Ms. Field requested regarding the annuities and the life insurance policy.”
The OG of the OC alleges that she “did not engage in any conduct that could be considered financial elder abuse, breach of fiduciary duty, or fraud” and “remains committed to the highest standards of integrity and transparency.”
“Needless to say, we are outraged by the false allegations being made against her. We will vigorously defend her good name and reputation in this lawsuit,” the statement concluded.
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
