RHOC star Vicki Gunvalson accused of financial elder abuse in lawsuit (2024)

Real Housewives of Orange County star Vicki Gunvalson has been accused of financial elder abuse by a one-time client of her Coto Insurance & Financial Services firm.

Diane Field, 74, said in legal docs reviewed by Page Six Wednesday that Gunvalson, 62, and her business partner Ali Hashemian misled her amid a series of financial dealings.

Field filed the lawsuit this past May at Superior Court of California in Orange County, according to the outlet. Gunvalson, her company Coto Insurance & Financial Services and Allianz Life Insurance Company were named in the lawsuit, according to In Touch.

Field said in the suit, according to Page Six, that she and her late spouse George Field had $6 million in assets as result of investing in stocks and funds following an inheritance from her mother, who passed away in 2002.

Field said that her spouse George had been involved in a bicycling accident that left him 'seriously injured' in 2002, at which time she commandeered the management and decision-making in terms of their financial portfolio, according to court docs.

Field said that she had been advised in 2016 to place her money in an Allianz 222 annuity, an insurance company's contract that minimizes the taxes a person pays while establishing a consistent source of monetary income, the outlet reported citing legal documents.

Field's attorneys said in legal docs that the cash in the account had not been touched, as Field had earmarked it 'for the sole purpose of growing it for her daughter.'

Field said she initially crossed paths with Gunvalson at a dinner in 2019 put on by the Bravo star's company, Coto Insurance & Financial Services.

Field said in legal docs that Gunvalson was keen to do business with her, offering her a 'safer diversified plan' earmarked to 'help lower the taxes she had been paying' and boost the 'future/potential financial capital for her children.'

Field said in court docs that she had been dealing with 'anguish and trauma' at the time, as her husband's health was in peril, leaving her vulnerable to outside influences.

Field told the court that both Gunvalson and Hashemian suggested to her that she should purchase life insurance but had 'failed to tell her how much it would cost and instead focused on why it would be a good deal.'

Field said in legal docs that Hashemian informed her that the life insurance pact had been a 'one and done' transaction totaling $300,000 that would result in her family receiving $6,000,000 at the time of her death.

Field said in court docs the life insurance deal pitched to her had been 'intentional, misleading, and false misrepresentation,' as the $300,000 was a recurring fee each year as opposed to one time.

Field told the court that amid 'the despair [she] was suffering from as [her husband's] health was spiraling,' she inked a pact with Gunvalson in December of 2019 'in reliance on ... fraudulent sales tactics' the reality star practiced.

Field remit a payment of $300,000 in February of 2021, doing so as she believed her hands were tied and that she had 'no other choice' in the matter, she said in court docs.

Field's spouse George died in October of 2021, at which time she said Gunvalson and Hashemian advised her to put her late spouse's money into a different annuity account they said would financially help her.

In September 2022, Field had received a lung cancer diagnosis, and underwent surgery months later in December, she said in legal docs, according to the outlet.

Field said in legal docs that she paid out another $300,000 premium into the account in February of 2022; by the end of the year she said that she felt 'uninformed' about the financial deals she made with Gunvalson and Hashemian.

Field told the court that she thought that the deals would have tied '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,' but her questions to Gunvalson and Hashemian went 'unanswered.'

Field said in legal docs that in April of 2023, she had let Gunvalson know she was upset with the deal. She subsequently inked a new pact that had a $100,000 premium payment resulting in a death benefit that would pay $3.6 million from years four to 10, and $1.45 million in the 11th year, the outlet reported.

Field said in court docs that she had to sell off stock assets in order to garner the $100,000 payments required for the premium.

Field said that in April of 2024, Gunvalson 'repeatedly' contacted her to tell her that she owed another $100,000 for the premium, according to legal docs.

Field said in legal docs she reached out directly to the company Allianz, and an associate informed her that she did 'not have to send any payment in at all' as she had an 'excess' of money in the account.

Gunvalson and Hashemian 'planned and engaged in their pattern of elder financial abuse with malice, oppression, and fraud,' Field's legal team said in the suit.

Gunvalson has past faced litigation from clients of her firm, as in 2019, an 82-year-old woman named Joan Lile said that the RHOC star and her firm had continued to raise premiums, but fell short on delivering the advertised benefits when Lile's spouse had died.

Gunvalson's lawyer told InTouch at the time of the suit from Lile, which was subsequently dismissed, that the accusations against the reality star were 'completely false.'

The attorney said, 'Gunvalson has always acted professionally and with the utmost truthfulness and integrity in every transaction that she acted as an insurance agent for her clients.

'She has never engaged in any fraudulent conduct nor misrepresented any terms of any policy. She vehemently denies the false allegations made against her in the lawsuit by Mrs. Lile.'