We’ve already heard from Prime Travel Protection’s customers and from the agents who sold its policies. But other than a form letter from its trustee, the company and its president, Jerry Watson, have remained silent. Until now.
To recap, state authorities in Florida and Colorado are investigating Watson’s company and travel agents who sold Prime Travel Protection policies.
Agents say they were unaware that Watson’s travel protection was unlicensed insurance, and insist that they stopped offering it the moment they found out it was an illegal product. But some customers claim Prime Travel Protection is the latest incarnation of a sophisticated insurance scam, and they believe Watson will return with the same network of travel agents, whose loyalty they say he buys with generous commissions and signing bonuses.
Last week, I asked Watson for his side of the story. Here’s the full text of our e-mail interview:
Q: Why was it necessary to cease operations? Have you filed for bankruptcy protection, and if so, in which court?
Watson: I ceased operations when I realized that there was no way that we could continue to pay claims based on the incoming revenues. I had not received any cease-and-desist notices. I elected not to file bankruptcy mainly because it is and has always been my intent to make good on the obligations of the company. Liquidation seems to be a better alternative.
Q: How many claims did you pay in 2008? How much money was paid to your policyholders in total?
Watson: I don’t have the exact number of claims but the dollar amount paid in 2008 is approximately $1,236,691. The total dollar amount for all companies from 2004 through 2008 is approximately $5,627,222.
Q: How many outstanding claims do you currently have? What is the amount of the claims? Of those, how many are approved, and how much are they worth?
Watson: No answer.
Q: Did you ever represent any of the policies offered through Prime Travel Protection and Travel Protection Services to agents as insurance, or encourage agents to represent your policies to their customers as insurance?
Watson: NO, I/WE never advised the travel agencies or the customer that we were an insurance company. We stated that we offered a benefit services contract.
Q:: How is Prime Travel Protection different from travel insurance?
Watson: The Prime Travel Protection service contract is issued in exchange for a separately stated consideration, whereby we are obligated for a specified period to the holder to repair, replace or indemnify or reimburse the holder the cost of repairing, replacing or provision for incidental payments of indemnity. Prime Travel Protection is a member of CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) and ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents.
The business plan of Prime Travel Protection is to provide benefits that have been deleted from other companies, including “Vendor Default” and pricing that is Non-Age based. Prime Travel Protection offers participating agencies the ability to receive commissions on sales and referrals or to establish their own pricing grids.
Prime Travel Protection is underwritten by the Cielo Capital Insurance Company Ltd; certificate number S24794 with assets exceeding $1,000,000.00 and its Reinsures.
As a comparison with other providers, our claim denial percent ratio was well within Industry standards.
Q: How many travel agencies were selling your policies at the time you ceased operations?
Watson: 38
Q: Do you have any plans to leave Colorado or to start another company that offers travel protection?
Watson: I have no plans to leave Colorado and I do not have any intentions of operating any type of travel protection company.
Update (9 p.m.): Watson has followed up with more information.
I wasn’t able to provide you with accurate data with reference to the number of claims and amounts due to the number of chargeback’s and agency participation in claims settlements.
Regardless of the outcome of the state investigations, I believe that I have tried to accommodate the consumer and the agency community the best that I can. However, the individuals that have responded to your blog are those that have been denied their request for reimbursement and I expect nothing more than their comments, etc. Unfortunately, the customers that have received the benefits of their contracts most likely will not respond in a complimentary fashion and they are in the majority. Our denial rate is less than 20%, which is well within the Industry averages.
For those consumers that feel that they have been denied the benefits of the contract purchased, per the Terms and Conditions of their contract, they have the opportunity to submit to binding arbitration with the American Arbitration Association for a hearing on their case. To my knowledge, their have been no cases filed with the American Arbitration Association. Their failure or lack of evidence to proceed with this form of resolution only validates their claim denial.
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He is still claiming not to have offered an insurance product? Seriously?? I mean.. he must not have a lawyer reviewed any of this. This dudes ego is off the charts.
So, he claims that his claim denial ratio was well within INDUSTRY standards? What INDUSTRY are we talking about here:
He claims to have sold POLICIES
He claims to have paid CLAIMS
He claims to have been UNDERWRITTEN
He claims to have been REINSURED
He issued a CONTRACT to INDEMNIFY
Holy cow.. he must mean the Benefit Services Contract industry. Also known as the INSURANCE industry. Man is a fool.
“Whereby we are obligated for a specified period to the holder to repair, replace or indemnify or reimburse the holder the cost of repairing, replacing or provision for incidental payments of indemnity.”
If that isn’t insurance, then what is?
If it looks like a duck…
SirWired
Some points to consider:
Watson practically admits that his business was nothing short of a Ponzi scheme. His incoming revenues were insufficient to pay claims.
Watson claims he paid out over $5 million in claims from 2004-2008. The question that is not asked and is very important is, how much in premiums were actually sold where claims were not made?
Between 2004-2008 Watson was involved with three different companies in three different states: Vacation Protection Services (Tennessee – Cease and Desist – December ‘06 from Tennessee); Traveler Protection Services (Illinois Cease and Desist May ‘08 from Tennessee); Prime Travel Protection (Colorado – Fate yet to be determined)
Watson gives an elaborate explanation how Prime Travel Protection is different from travel insurance. His definition is irrelevant – there is only one difference and that is Prime Travel Protection is ILLEGAL! Membership in CLIA and ASTA is also irrelevant and if Watson feels such membership provides legitimacy then I recommend those with outstanding claims should contact both organizations who to date, have done nothing – not so much as a press release distancing themselves from PTP.
Prime Travel Protection’s underwriter according to Watson is the Cielo Capital Insurance Company, Ltd. The only company close to this company’s name is Cielo Capital Management out of Towson, Maryland (phone number 410) 337-5660. Call them – if they are indeed the underwriter, then those of you with claims have found possible recourse. Otherwise you might find the same thing I did when I contacted MaxBermuda – the company Legendary Journeys, Stew Carrier posted was the Prime Travel Protection underwriter…MaxBermuda never heard of PTP.
Watson claims 38 travel agents were selling the PTP product. How many of these agencies sold through Watson’s previous companies?
Jerry Watson is so full of S***, it is coming out of his ears. Every single document I received from Legendary Journeys and Travel Protection Services uses the term “TRAVEL INSURANCE”.
On March 2nd Chris Elliott sent a detailed account of my loss of over $8000.00 to Legendary Jouneys. Part of the response we received from Stew Carrier was:
“Legendary Journeys will evaluate our clients booking, analyzing the cruise line penalties and applicable land / package penalties, to see what monies we will be able to move for this client. As a courtesy to all of our guests affected by the closure of Prime Travel Protection we are doing this on a case-by-case basis. As soon as Mr. Ferguson has had time to analyze all requests I will personally call this client.”
The SILENCE from Legendary Journeys has been deafening. Will he ever call or is he just blowing smoke like Jerry Watson?
Folks – the only way there is going to be some resolution is if the Florida authorities take criminal action against the repeat offending travel agents who helped with this scam. If you are a Florida resident, contact your state legislator and urge him/her to be a hero and push this along. If you reside outside of Florida, contact your Congress person and ask him/her to contact someone in the Florida delegation to move on this asap. Politicians love to be heroes and this is a great opportunity. The issue now is how many more victims will there be before someone shuts these travel agents down? The excuse these travel agents have offered of “as soon as I knew it was wrong, I started to sell legitimate insurance”. That’s not going to work for those who have sold through Watson before.
Mr. Fredrickson, I assure you that your request will be reviewed in due time.
Sincerely,
Stew Carrier
Attention: George Fredrickson
This is not the first time Legendary Journeys has sold bogus trip protection products. Considering this fact, an admission of guilt by Legendary Journeys could be fatal. I have been informed by reliable sources that this may not be the second company Legendary Journeys has sold through, but it might be the third or fourth. What is particularly disturbing is the fact that Legendary Journeys owner, Adrian “Al” Ferguson is licensed to sell insurance in the state of Florida. So, as a licensed agent, he sold you an illegal product. Potentially, Mr. Ferguson could be liable for every “policy” he sold as well as any claim resulting from such “policies”. Understandably, this is why you will probably never hear from him. In my opinion, this is like asking a bank robber to reimburse the bank. The only difference is bank robbers are usually apprehended after their first try.
Googling Jerry Watson is quite interesting. His Linked In profile shows he owns “Watson Consulting”, registered at a Colorado address (a house), but owned in Florida at another home address. The same addresses also appear to have been used in previous insurance/protection companies.
Which AG office is running this investigation? FL or CO?
Mr. Carrier,
What nonsense is this?, “your claim will be reviewed in due time”. It’s incumbent upon you to pay Mr. Fredrickson (and everyone else who has an outstanding claim) immediately. There is no reviewing that needs to be done because you sold an illegal product. When you are done paying off the outstanding claims then I expect you to pay everyone back who purchased one of these bogus policies whether they had a claim or not. There are no excuses, Mr. Carrier. The law is clear. Stop the excuses, stop the bullshit and stop jerking everyone around.
James
A “Benefit Services Contract”? Give me a break, Jerry. I’ve been following the deceptions of you, McKinley Johnson and Chris Poucher since 2003, when I was defrauded by Trip Assured. Johnson used to use the term “Travel Insurance”, but when that became difficult to defend, he switched to the term, “Travel Protection”. Virtually every travel Agent that peddled this crap product, including Best Price Cruises, Legendary Journeys and SmartCruiser have at one time or the other, sold this product as “Trip Insurance”. Are you trying to tell me that in six years, you never looked at their website to see what they were advertising? If you did, shouldn’t you have called them to make them correct their advertising?
Sorry, Jerry; it won’t wash. You know that what you were doing was illegal, and so do the greedy agents who sold your shoddy product.
If Mr Watson didn’t pay his previous court restitution why will he do so now?
This is on a Jerry Andrew Watson and I am assuming this is the same Jerry Watson of PTP
http://www.jococourts.org/crpay.aspx
Johnson Co case # K0055475, shows
Fine = 0
Court Costs = 117.00
Restitution ordered = 77952.37
Total paid: = 567.97
Balance owing= $77,501.40
In 2005 Trip Assured (VP Jerry Watson) had 700 clients. Now he only claims 38!
If the number 38 is correct then every one of the 38 travel agents, or at least those in Florida, have violated Florida amended section statute 624.401. Travel Agents could be charged with a criminal felony or have their license removed.
Hey Harry! It’s travel insurance when it is sold. It’s travel protection when one tries to make a claim. In my view, I cannot remember a scam of larger proportions in the travel industry in decades. What is so disgusting about this scam is it’s the very travel agents who these consumers went to for counsel, who did the scamming.
I just accessed the internet archive for June 9, 2005. The link below is the website for Smartcruiser. Click on “insurance info” (bottom left corner). Scroll down to the bottom of the page that appears and you will find that Smartcruiser was selling Trip Assured’s illegal trip protection plans at that time. Note that Smartcruiser does indeed call the product “Trip Insurance”. If any of you purchased a PTP “insurance” policy from Smartcruiser I suggest you get in touch with the authorities asap.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050810233122/www.smartcruiser.com/affiliate/smartcruiser/insurance.rvlx
Incredible work, ScoobyDoo. Here’s Smartcruiser’s website with the “insurance” page from January 17, 2007. This sure looks like the Prime Travel Protection ” plan clearly labeled “Trip Insurance”. Someone isn’t telling the truth. Mr. Watson claims he never advised the travel agencies that he was an insurance company.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070121164255/www.smartcruiser.com/affiliate/smartcruiser/insurance.rvlx
Scooby and James
Unbelievable? The contract shown from Smartcruiser in the last link is the same
as three of the groups contracts from Prime Travel Protection in 2007.
Talking of Smartcruiser one of our friends found another link in this circle of scammers.
Revelex had a vice president in 2004/5 called BRENDA NOLAN.
Where did she go after that? To Lee Smolinski at Smartcruiser.
There is a never ending connection of those orbiting around Mr Watson.
Oh my! Let me get this straight. I’m a little behind here, but I’m aware of these travel protection scams as a friend of mine was burned by Trip Assured. Smartcruiser sold Trip Assured then jumped to PTP? If this is accurate and I have no doubt it is based on the documentation, this has to be a criminal offense. I read in a previous link that Revelex also sold these illegal insurance plans and now you state one of Revelex’ employees went to work for Smartcruiser? I hope the authorities are looking into this. BTW, if this is indeed illegal and any documents were sent via the mail or internet, I’m pretty sure it could be considered a federal offense of mail fraud. Has anyone contact the FBI? Who is Lee Smolinski? Does he work for or own Smartcruiser?
“However, the individuals that have responded to your blog are those that have been denied their request for reimbursement and I expect nothing more than their comments, etc.” – Jerry Watson
Sorry, Jerry; I was never scammed by you. I do, however, recognize a scam when I see one, and you’ve been scamming people by selling them fraud travel products for over six years. While I hope that I’m wrong, I fully expect to see you, some time in the future, trying to sell the same garbage in another state, with yet another misleading company name. Hopefully, the Authorities will get you and the complicit travel agents who greedily sold your products to unwary customers this time, and I’ll be wrong.
Attention: Jerry Watson
First, let me make this clear, like Mr. Baxter I was not scammed by you, but know a good con job when I see one. A few points…
You claim your “denial” rate is less than 20% which is within “Industry” averages. What industry, Mr. Watson? The industry of scamming, conning and cheating? You can’t compare your denial rate with any industry because you do not operate legally.
As far as the happy customers who received the benefits of their contracts – well, let me give you the bad news. You owe each one of them the cost of their premiums and you owe every other customer who may not have filed a claim the cost of their premium, too. Why? Because you sold an illegal product. I don’t think you understand that fact. If you or the travel agents you work so closely with do not pay them back, I can assure you some law firm will jump in and make the claim on behalf of all customers of PTP. It’s just a matter of time until the state investigations are concluded. If I was you I’d pray that the feds don’t decide to jump on the bandwagon, too.
And lastly, regarding the American Arbitration Association. Gee, that is really nice of you to offer this reputable organization to be the arbiter between you and those who purchased your unauthorized,unlicensed trip protection plan. It’s sort of like having the bank and the bank robber meet together with a neutral party to determine if the robber was within his rights to rob the bank.
There is no reason that anyone should seek arbitration. Even if the terms of PTP’s illegal contract were violated, it makes no difference – the contract is not valid.
Mr Watson, Mr Smolinski, Mr Russo, Mr Mass Mr Ferguson
Florida insurance or investigation departments are not scrutinising a claim or denial of such. They are investigating:-
An unauthorised entity unlicensed to sell insurance in Florida – PTP.
Agencies selling unlicensed insurance in Florida – Travel Agents
End of story.
I am a victim of PTP and Smartcruiser. I DID contact the American Arbitration Association by telephone. After a long and detailed discussion they considered the PTP protection was in fact insurance and as the issuer was not licensed to sell insurance they could not arbitrate. They referred me to Colorado and Florida state regulators.
I know others who also contacted AAA.
I posted a couple of comments on the earlier blog and have been following this most recent blog and the comments by Jerry Watson. My first comment on the previous blog was directed to Peter Lay who was blasting Lee Smolinski of Palm Coast Travel. His post rambled on and as I wrote it was like a dog trying to catch his tail. After reading the posts above, I see your point, Peter – you were had by this company. The other issues you mentioned are still confusing, but you were sold an illegal trip protection plan by a company that had a track record of selling the same to others through another illegal company. Good luck and I hope the state of Florida files a criminal action against Smolinski and his company.
Now I’m really CONFUSED. Someone please explain Smolinski, Palm Coast Travel and Smartcruiser. Are they one in the same?
David wrote:
“Mr Watson, Mr Smolinski, Mr Russo, Mr Mass Mr Ferguson
Florida insurance or investigation departments are not scrutinising a claim or denial of such. They are investigating:-
An unauthorised entity unlicensed to sell insurance in Florida – PTP.
Agencies selling unlicensed insurance in Florida – Travel Agents
End of story.”
No, it’s not the end of the story. They are also investigating travel agencies who sold unlicensed insurance from two (Trip Assured and Vacation Protection Services); three (Trip Assured, Vacation Protection Services and Traveler Protection Services) and four (Trip Assured, Vacation Protection Services and Prime Travel Protection) different companies.
I forgot the fourth company…Traveler Protection Services. Here they are in chronological order:
Trip Assured (Cease and Desist, 9/06 Florida and multiple states)
Vacation Protection Services (Cease and Desist, 12/06 Tennessee)
Traveler Protection Services (Cease and Desist, 5/08 Tennessee)
Prime Travel Protection (Pending)
IMHO if you steal a car and you go to jail. Steal millions of dollars from unsuspecting consumers and you are a CEO.
James of course is right (March 9th at 10:22 am). Jerry Watson all but admitted that he was operating a Ponzi Scheme when he said that he could no longer pay the claims “based on the incoming revenues”. This is, on a smaller scale, the same dead end where Bernie Madoff found himself.
Ironically enough, the latter had made so much money that he couldn’t slip away unnoticed. On the other hand, Mr. Watson seems to think that he can still get out of the business and retire on a millionaire’s budget. Thus we have his newest idea, a five-year plan in which he will use his own money to pay off a few claims here and there while he plans his exit strategy. It would be interesting to know if these brainstorms come to him spontaneously or if he actually spends time thinking them up. At any rate it won’t work because he has attracted way too much attention to himself, thanks primarily to this blog.
Looking at it realistically though, probably the best the Florida authorities can do is to order the travel agencies to stop selling his policies. It’s the feds that will have to put Mr. Watson away, and whether they decide to do so or not remains to be seen.
I think dumbfounded has a point. (March 10, 2009)
If the Fed’s are unable to pursue criminal charges against the Travel Agencies that sold an unlicensed and illegal insurance product and are only able to issue cease & desist orders to stop selling an unlicensed and illegal insurance product through the Ag. Dept of the State of Florida, then maybe the Feds should consider and pursue Mail Fraud charges. Mail Fraud by definition is precise. Many white collar criminals (particularly financial crimes) are prosecuted via Mail Fraud charges because it is easier to prove and the end result is the same: the bad guy or girl gets to go to prison. A happy ending for all who have been lied to, swindled, scammed and/or victimized by greedy business owners.
The definition of Mail Fraud is: (direct from the USPS website)
” U.S. Postal Inspectors investigate any crime in which the U.S. Mail is used to further a scheme–whether it originated in the mail, by telephone, or on the Internet. The use of the U.S. Mail is what makes it mail fraud. ”
If ANYONE received their illegal and unlicensed insurance policy via the United States Postal Service, then by definition, Mail Fraud has been committed.
Something to consider…Fla. investigators – are you reading this?
Sounds a lot like insurance to me
We were informed by Vacationprotectionservices.com that they were underwritten by Loyd’s of London. Jerry Watson refused to take my calls on several occasions when we had extreme service issues with his agents. Jerry Watson has also bounced several checks to my company. We had a similar issue a few years ago with a company called TRIPASSURED.COM in Crossville TN. The owner “MACK” also claimed he was underwritten. As President of Vacationsbysea.com I have personally authorized the the REBOOKING/REPURCHASE of all vacation insurance policies at OUR expense to insure that OUR guests are protected. All of our clients that purchased trip insurance from Vacationprotection will be insured at our expense by CSA Travel Protection in San Diego. I truly believe there should be better monitoring of insurance comapanies.
Desiree Golembiewski
President
vacationsbysea.com
We even have the ORIGINAL brochures sent out can someone please xplain to me the connection between trip assured and vacationprotection?
Did the company in Crossville set up shop in Colorado?
And does anyone know of a website where we can verify if these are valid insurance companies