An Illinois federal judge gave an early approval Friday to a settlement, including $2.2 million in attorneys’ fees, that ends litigation over claims that Accordia Life and Annuity Co. unlawfully canceled the no-lapse guarantees in several customers’ life insurance policies, Law360 reported. The four Accordia customers who sued in 2017 claimed their guarantees were purposely cut when the company and its electronic payment collector, Alliance One Services Inc., allowed life insurance policies previously owned and guaranteed for life by Athene Annuity & Life Co. to either lapse or be canceled by not automatically debiting those customers’ monthly premiums and applying them to their accounts. The judge’s preliminary approval order said the parties’ settlement, which provides injunctive relief for the customers as well as monetary damages on a claims-made basis, “falls within the range of reasonableness meriting possible final approval” in the suit, which was also granted preliminary class certification. Athene Annuity, part of West Des Moines-based Athene USA, sold most of its life insurance business to Accordia in 2013 but continued to administer the business until Accordia took over in 2015, according to the customers’ suit. The court will hold a final approval hearing on the proposed settlement on Dec. 2. Accordia Life, a subsidiary of Global Atlantic Financial Group, launched in Des Moines in 2014.