Superior Court Judge Carl Fox signed a judgment this week that banned American Family Prepaid Legal and Heritage Marketing and Insurance, along with the companies' presidents, Stanley Norman and Jeffrey Norman of California. The companies and their agents are no longer allowed to sell prepaid legal services, estate-planning services, living trusts, insurance and annuities.

In 2006, Attorney General Roy Cooper sued the two companies, accusing them of using aggressive, unfair and deceptive tactics to sell living trusts and annuities to elderly consumers.

"Using fear and high-pressure sales tactics to trick older North Carolinians is flat-out wrong," Cooper said in a statement. "We won't stand for companies that try to cheat seniors out of their savings."

The two companies worked together to pressure seniors into buying products they did not need. Representatives of AFPL would go to potential customers' homes and, preying on their fears, pressure them to pay $1,995 for living trusts. Once trusts were purchased, agents for Heritage delivered them and then would try to sell other insurance products, such as deferred annuities, according to the AG's office.

In most cases, the annuities were a poor choice for the seniors because they typically had terms as long as 20 years and charged stiff penalties for early withdrawals, the AG's office claimed. Some seniors were talked into investing their entire savings in these types of annuities, the AG's office reported.

Before filing for bankruptcy last year, AFPL collected at least $4.2 million from more than 2,100 North Carolina senior citizens. Heritage sold more than 900 annuities with premiums totaling $72 million.

The court has ordered the companies to pay $17 million to the state, but the bankruptcy may make it impossible for the state to collect.

"There are a lot of different types of annuities," said Kristen Milam, spokeswoman for the state's Department of Insurance. "We encourage people that if they have any questions about any insurance product to call our consumer line," (800) 546-5664.

Milam said consumers can contact the department also to find out whether an agent is licensed to do business in the state.