Vicki Gunvalson has always used her starring role in the "The Real Housewives of Orange County," a long-running reality TV show, to showcase her insurance agency. Now the celebrity is fighting accusations that she defrauded a 74-year old widow.

Lung cancer survivor Diane Field is accusing Gunvalson and a business associate of financial elder abuse in the lawsuit. She alleged the TV star used high-pressure sales tactics to induce her to purchase what she claims were an unsuitable annuity and life insurance policy and prod her to constantly make additional premium and annuity payments, for which Gunvalson and her associate earned significant commissions.

The other defendants in the lawsuit, filed in late May in Superior Court of California in Orange County, are listed as Allianz Life Insurance Company, Gunvalson’s firm Coto Insurance & Financial Services in Irvine, Calif., and Ali Hashmenian, an advisor with Kinetic Financial in Los Angeles.

It is not the first time Gunvalson has been accused of financial elder abuse. In 2018, Gunvalson was sued by Joan Lile, 82, for alleged fraud over a life insurance policy. The suit was later dismissed.

Field is alleging the defendants “planned and engaged in their pattern of elder financial abuse with malice, oppression, and fraud."

According to the lawsuit, Field met Gunvalson in 2019, when she attended a dinner hosted by the Bravo star and her company. At the time, Field said, she had begun to take the lead on the finances of h er %6 million estate after her husband, now deceased, was seriously injured in a bicycle accident.

Field is claiming that as a result of the defendants “fraudulent sales tactics and promises that this annuity would help lower her income taxes” she transferred money into the Allianz 222 Indexed Annuity, which the two financial professionals placed inside an IRA.

The defendants are also accused of inducing Field to take out a life insurance policy without telling her it would cost $300,000 in annual premiums.

In December 2022, according to the lawsuit, Field told Gunvalson and her associate that she was concerned about their investment recommendations, “explaining that 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.”

After Field complained, Gunvalson modified the policy, halving the benefit and reducing the premium to $100,000. Field said Gunvalson then “repeatedly contacted” her in March and April to remind her the $100,000 insurance premium was due.

But Field said she reached out to Allianz directly and a rep told her she had $600,000 in her account and did not need to send any premiums.

Field paid total premiums on the policy of $1 million as of April 10, according to the lawsuit. The accumulation value of her Allianz life insurance policy was $661,816.74, the cash surrender value was $387,497.96 and the death benefit was $3,539,077.00, according to the lawsuit.

As of April 10, the value of Field’s Allianz 222 IRA annuity was $750,506, according to the lawsuit.

Gunvalson did not return a call placed to Coto Insurance & Financial Services. Hashmenian did not return a call placed to Kinetic.

Attorney Michael Edmiston, who is not connected to the case, said the defendants may have liability on a number of fronts, including putting the annuity inside an IRA. “The annuity adds no tax benefit, but adds expenses and fees that would not otherwise exist if the purchaser just bought mutual funds or ETFs,” he said.

Hefty commissions may present another challenge for Gunvalson, he said. For certain life insurance policies like indexed universal life, the insurance agent’s commission is roughly the equivalent of one year’s premium payment, noted Edmiston, who is representing a doctor in a similar lawsuit. 

“The agent selling the annuity also gets a fat commission, about equal to 10% of the first year’s premium payment. Every additional contribution adds more commission. The incentive for the agent to push the client to make higher premium payments is a huge conflict,” he said.