University of Virginia Library

You're Not In Good Hands...

If a student learns nothing else during his
college career, he learns – by necessity – how
to cope with overbearing life insurance
companies and their ubiquitous agents. The
lengths to which some companies will go to
persuade students and/or their parents to sign
on the dotted line have always been
considerable. But now at least two individuals
– and possibly an entire company – have
gone one step further, and, by trying to
subtly deceive parents into believing that their
life insurance program for students is
"sponsored" by the University
administration, have exceeded the bounds of
professional ethics.

The case in question concerns a letter which
parents have been receiving from a Mr.
Stephen M. Dearholt, Administrative Director
of something called the "Center For Student
Services." Both the content and appearance
of the letter are such that the unsuspecting
parent would interpret the letter as being an
official endorsement of the insurance program
by the University rather than a straight
come-on by the insurance company itself.

Mr. Dearholt, it has turned out, is not
registered to sell insurance in the state of
Virginia, and the general agent to whom the
one dollar enrollment fee is to be sent is not
licensed by Beneficial National Life
Insurance, the company whose policy Mr.
Dearholt endorses in the letter. An
investigation is currently being conducted by
the Virginia Commissioner of Insurance to
determine the exact nature and extent of this
clever misrepresentation.

The real upshot of all this is that the Board
of Visitors' ruling forbidding the release of
official student mailing lists to commercial
enterprises has not deterred ambitious (and,
in this case, unscrupulous) businessmen from
taking advantage of the large student market.
And the only advice we can offer, as we have
in the past, is Caveat Emptor – or BUYER
BEWARE!