The AARP, which was formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, supports various goods and services and endorses them for their members; this includes auto insurance.  Recently, Bloomberg news reported some practices that appear to be pretty shady, in regards to their insurance endorsements.

Some members are actually shelling out double for insurance that is AARP-backed in comparison to what the price would be for another plan.  Why would AARP advise them so wrong?  When people pay for their vehicle insurance, part of the premium goes to the AARP as “fees” and “royalties”.  What this means is that AARP gets a cut of each payment before the insurer receives any payment, and since AARP has a large membership base, it’s a pretty lucrative business.

These so called “fees” have leaped from accounting for about 11% of the AARP’s revenue in the year 1999 to about 43% in 2007.  If this organization is intentionally coaxing its members to pay added funds for their insurance to get financial awards, that is definitely shady.  Especially considering all of the car costs that people have to pay these days, such as used car warranties and maintenance.