$18,644. That is the amount that Asset Protection Unit, an Amarillo, TX collection finding firm said a tenant in a local assisted living community owned them in "overpayments" from Bankers Life and Casualty. It didn't make sense. The claimant and long time customer of Bankers Life and Casualty honestly and completely filled out and with the help of the assisted living community submitted the paperwork. There was no embellishment, just honest answers from someone who was in need and who had been directed to seek assisted living care. Their doctor directed them to assisted living as they were no longer able to care for themselves completely and needed assistance with activities of daily living.

After some time the community started to get calls from representatives from a company called "Asset Protection Unit". There message was this. Asset Protection Unit felt that benefits had been overpaid. As the assisted living community providing services for and taking payments on behalf of the resident, they thought the community owed it to them to return what they claimed was an overpayment.

The interesting thing to note is that Bankers Life and Casualty continues to pay the regular amount they had agreed to in the contract. So on one hand the payments are being made like they should be and on the other hand a different company is claiming the amount paid is incorrect and the client and assisted living owes them money.

It was time to start asking questions. Who was Asset Protection Unit? What was their story? Brandon De Leon whose title is Senior Recovery Specialist refused to answer the request for who the owners or officers were and where the company was incorporated. Through multiple emails with the management company responsible for the property it became clear that he wouldn't answer most questions.

Through an internet search we learned that Asset Protection Unit was founded in 2002 by Jim Del Vecchio. They sell what they call a "guilt edged service". This is directly from their web site. They claim or sell to the companies they represent "Non-adversarial, non-confrontational approach to overpayment recovery."

So let's get this right. Bankers Life and Casualty sells insurance policies. They then sign a contract with Asset Protection Unit, Inc. to pursue Bankers Life and Casualty clients with a "guilt edged service" claiming overpayment. What a heartless and vicious way to treat clients. Imagine your mother or grandmother dealing with "guilt edged" collection techniques.

More fascinating is the claim of Asset Protection Unit stating that their services are "non-adversarial and non-confrontational. The company uses statements like "I need an answer today" and "I will be forced to take other action". They even went so far at to say, "This information might want to be forwarded to the owner or CEO as this will affect the companies credit and good standing with creditors".

The company's web site goes on to state "We have recovered millions of dollars for our clients with no customer service complaints or legal action of ANY kind." When contact information was requested to submit a compliant the request was ignored and the contact information was not submitted. As of this writing a second request was made with no response.