‘Real Housewives’ Star Vicki Gunvalson Accused Of Financial Elder Abuse & Fraud

Real Housewives of Orange County star Vicki Gunvalson is being sued by a former client of her insurance company for financial elder abuse, negligence and fraud.

Diane Field filed her lawsuit against Gunvalson and business partner Ali Hashemian in Orange County in late May. Field, 74, stated that she and her late husband had a combined net worth of $6 million and that she took over their finances after he became “seriously injured in a bicycle accident” in 2002, the same year Field’s mother died and left her an inheritance. Field transferred all the funds into an Allianz 222 annuity, a plan that is meant to decrease a person’s taxes.

In the filing, Field claims she met Gunvalson in 2019 at a dinner hosted by the reality star’s company, Coto Insurance & Financial Services. Gunvalson allegedly told Field “that she could help her manage her finances” and promised that “if she invested her money with them, she would have lower income taxes and increased future/potential financial capital for her children.”

Field alleged that Gunvalson and Hashemian convinced her to invest in a life insurance policy without disclosing “how much it would cost.” She claimed Hashemian told her she needed to make a “one and done” payment of $300,000 to cover the $6 million that would belong to her family after her death.

In 2019, Field signed a contract with Gunvalson and Hashemian. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2020 and paid another $300,000 toward her life insurance. Field’s husband passed away in 2021, and the reality star persuaded her to put his funds into another annuity account.

The following year, Field claimed she started “to question why she was paying this $300,000 premium yet again, as this was not what Hashemian had promised her, but she went ahead and did it anyway, as her husband had recently passed away and she was still mourning his loss (and she was recovering from her own hip surgery).”

Field allegedly emailed Gunvalson and Hashemian in December 2022, telling them “she felt uninformed by them and that the annuities and life insurance policy they convinced her to open did not seem to be the best investments for her, as they tie 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.”

Gunvalson offered to lower Field’s life insurance premium to $100,000 annually, and Field agreed and “sold some of her stock” to make the first payment. When it came time to make the second payment, Gunvalson allegedly “repeatedly contacted Diane to remind her,” prompting Field to “reach out to Allianz directly in April 2024 to see what the due date was, and a representative told Diane that she had over $600,000 in her account since she was previously paying $300,000 a year in premiums.”

The filing states that “Diane realizes this was an intentional, misleading and false misrepresentation.” Her suit states that the “defendants planned and engaged in their pattern of elder financial abuse with malice, oppression and fraud.”