The Nature Boy's decline

[Andy Griffin]

Nearly all of these guys lived fucked up lives and are in financial and personal ruin after their "retirements" (most of them seem to keep working forever until they die an early death).

Sounds more like the bodybuilding industry.

[Natural Man]

The Storick Episodes

In the simple version of the story, alleged in a lawsuit, Storick repeatedly convinced Elizabeth to purchase replacement life insurance policies for herself and Fliehr. He told her that it would be a better deal for both, when the truth (speaking broadly) is that life insurance policies accrue money as they age, and prematurely dumping one before it pays off is a waste of money.

The problems began in 1994. At the time, Fliehr had whole life insurance with Guardian, a low-risk policy that accrued value over time. The beneficiaries were Fliehr's parents and Elizabeth. Scott Chamberlain, a representative of Principal Life, convinced the Fliehrs to switch their coverage to a universal life policy by showing that the premium payments would be less and the death benefit more. What he didn't explain was that because universal life policies oftentimes fluctuate more wildly with the market, less cash is guaranteed. Also, the new policy essentially meant that the insurance company could charge higher premiums if they determined over time that Fliehr — already an aging professional wrestler who would later admit to using steroids — was increasingly likely to die.

When Fliehr and Elizabeth figured out what happened, Storick entered the equation. Also a Principal Life agent, he "exhibited great concern" about Chamberlain's mismanagement and guided the Fliehrs into buying a Principal whole life policy. But he left out the fact that Fliehr's original Guardian policy, with all its accrued value, had yet to expire and could still be used. Instead, he led them through the process of surrendering that policy in favor of the new one. The new annual premium was more than twice the Guardian rate, and Storick benefited from the commissions. (The policy was put in Elizabeth's name "to prevent Mr. Fliehr from borrowing against the cash value of the policy.")

Storick became close to the couple as time went on. He was their main financial advisor and became so trusted that "Mrs. Fliehr confided to him the combination of her home safe."

That's when the policy churning began. In 1998, he sold Elizabeth a life insurance policy from Guardian, his new company. When he became a Travelers agent in 1999, he convinced Beth to replace both of Fliehr's Principal policies with Travelers universal policies. In 2000, he had Beth replace her own policy with a Travelers option.

Every time he made a switch, Storick approached Elizabeth as a friend, promising her that he'd found a better deal. Instead, Fliehr and his wife forfeited any accrued money, exposed themselves to greater risk, and lined the pockets of Storick and his successive companies.

In 2002, when Storick went to General American, it happened again. Two new policies for Fliehr.

By the time it was over and the divorce was settled, every active policy was surrendered to Elizabeth, though none of them were worth anything like their purported payout value. Fliehr was left without life insurance (at a time in his life when he was becoming less and less insurable) and with a net cash loss around $270,000.

But it didn't end there. If it was so easy for Storick to churn their life insurance policies, why not sell them annuities too? An annuity is a stock market investment, with the idea that at a specified date you'll receive annual payments. Many investors use them as retirement security, but the key aspect of an annuity is that it acts slowly. There's rarely an immediate benefit, and taking money out early often comes with associated penalties.

By telling Elizabeth that annuities were good substitutes for a savings account, he convinced her to buy 12 annuities for $1.24 million between 1994 and 2003.

In one particularly ruthless case in 2003, he advised Elizabeth to repay money borrowed from Fliehr's mother by purchasing two final annuities totaling more than $700,000. He didn't tell her that annuities are perhaps the worst kind of investment for debt purposes since they take too long to pay out. In the end, almost all of this money was levied by the IRS for back taxes.

In early 2000, Storick told Elizabeth that in order to use $150,000 she'd made from the sale of Fliehr's gyms as collateral for a different loan, she would have to put the money in a mutual fund. This advice, nearly absurd in its inaccuracy, was swallowed hook, line, and sinker. She listened, and lost $53,000 to the market by 2003.

After the divorce Fliehr received less than $150,000 on all annuities, after an initial investment of $1.24 million.

Storick couldn't keep the Fliehrs to himself. In 1999, he introduced Fliehr to Peter Wirth, the contractor who would later sue the family for unpaid work. Within a year, Storick and Wirth convinced Fliehr to invest $220,000 in a commercial real estate project. Next came a new project and an investment of $142,000. Then another for $101,000. A series of maneuvers by Wirth followed (including contracting the construction of an office building to his own company, Testa & Wirth, at a discount rate). By the time Fliehr's divorce went through, he'd made no return on the property investments and had lost almost $150,000.

Fliehr sued both men, eventually settling out of court for $230,000. Of that total, $60,000 went to his lawyers, and the remaining $170,000 went to pay part of the $708,000 he owed Elizabeth in back alimony payments.

After it was all over, Elizabeth Fliehr still considered Scott Storick a close friend.

wow. Wont even mention the several kids, at this point it's useless.

[Natural Man]

Id take 70 years on the planet living Ric Flair's life,debt and all,vs 90 years of an average Joe life.lol

did you even read the article ?

Fucking moron.

[JimmyJam1974]

dont looklike rick flairs livng on the biggest house on top of the biggest hill anymore lol[youtube][/youtuhttp://youtu.be/nZ1JOHzh0Xwbe]

Stellar

[eldogg4life]

Wow, he used the Rolex Shawn Michaels gave him as collateral for a loan. That's dirty. I've met the man and respect what he's done in the business but letting multiple women beat on you and being so irresponsible with your money is extremely foolish and he's paid for it!!!

[Heywood]

To be the man, you gotta beat the man......

I'm an extreme Ric Flair fan, but I have to tell you, if Ric said the sky was blue, you better look up and make sure.

He is a true work, and if he ever has a heart attack, they may keep asking him if it's real, because he's the greatest faker in history.  And certainly one of the greatest pro-wrestlers as well.

[mass 04]

Stellar

[Parker]

He does.  He was doing the NC State Lottery not too long ago.  You should visit his site at www.ricflair.com

He should do something ofr drinks, or Old Navy....my bad Old Navy is Youth Oriented...He should do Caddy Commercials---Imagine someone powersliding a CTS-V, and a Woooooooooo at the end...then a close up, and it's him in tinted shades, with a big grin on his face, and then a close up of the rear end and you hear the car accellerate and smoking tires...

And make it a Superbowl commercial

[Natural Man]

he looks too old and is in bad shape nowadays for ads.

[Vince G, CSN MFT]

he looks too old and is in bad shape nowadays for ads.

Doesn't matter how old and how bad he looks.  He's still Ric Flair....period.  He's a legend and millions of people love him.  He could be in a coma and still get TV commericals.  Hell, his 3rd wife was a fitness model and competitor and his 4th wife is half his age...he's still nailing pussy.

One thing I can respect is that he's enjoying the hell out of life because he knows that he can't take the money with him when he dies.