Allstate Lawsuit Alleges Ameriprise Stole Trade Secrets, Customers By Poaching Employees
August 15, 2017 by Marie Suszynski
CHICAGO – Allstate has filed a lawsuit against Ameriprise alleging the company directed Allstate employees to download thousands of pages of confidential documents that included trade secrets and customer information to unlawfully solicited clients.
In a complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Allstate Insurance Co. and Allstate Life Insurance Co. allege Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. recruited exclusive financial specialists who worked for Allstate to share the information with Ameriprise and use it to lure customers.
In one case involving two specialists in Arizona, Allstate alleged the employees took more than 18,000 pages of confidential information to Ameriprise. In addition, Allstate alleged that Ameriprise received a document that included information on Allstate Life Insurance Co.’s operations, including sales incentives and quotas.
“Allstate will always take action when its contractual obligations are being violated or its confidential information is threatened,” Ben Corey, a spokesman for Allstate Insurance Co. told Best’s News Service in an email. “We stand by the allegations stated in our complaint and look forward to a favorable court resolution of this issue.”
Exclusive financial specialists at Allstate sign a contract that says they are not permitted to share information with competitors and may not solicit the insurer’s customers for one year after leaving the company, the lawsuit said. Through their work with Allstate Insurance agents, specialists can access customers’ personal information, along with policy information and claims history, in order to sell them products for Allstate Life Insurance.
But according to the complaint, Ameriprise encouraged the employees to steal the confidential information while still under contract and keep the information after their contracts were terminated. Ameriprise also gave the employees incentives through bonuses and compensation to use the information to solicit the customers for Ameriprise.
“Ameriprise’s actions constitute the misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference with business relationships and unfair competition,” Allstate charged in the complaint.
Allstate is seeking compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial.
Attempts to reach Ameriprise for comment were unsuccessful.
Allstate Insurance Co. and Allstate Life Insurance Co. have a current Best’s Financial Strength Rating of A+ (Superior). Subsidiaries of Ameriprise Financial Inc. have a current rating of A+ (Superior) or A (Excellent).
On the afternoon of Aug. 11, shares of Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL) were $94.04, down 0.13% from the previous close. Shares of Ameriprise Financial (NYSE: AMP) were trading at $143.25, down 0.38% from the previous close.
(By Marie Suszynski, BestWeek Correspondent: Marie.Suszynski@ambest.com)
