How to Mess Up Your Insurance…Without Really Trying
So how many times have your clients come to you and asked, “How do I mess up my insurance policy so that I don’t get paid on a claim?” Not too often, I’m sure, as many insured are very capable of doing this all by themselves and without any assistance or advice on your part.
However, what would your response be if this actually did happen?
As insurance professionals, we are expected to offer advice to the contrary, so that their policies not only respond to their claim by providing proper and fair cover- age, but also a payment to make them whole again (according to the language and terms of the contract). Just think for a second if this were to occur, and once you ask the inevitable, “What the (insert your favorite expletive here) are you talking about?” question, and you check your own personal hearing ability, you may want to respond with any or all of the following answers (as suggested by Property Casualty 360 in a piece reprinted from Insure.com).
I omitted the comments that were in the original article, as I thought it might be interesting for you to insert your own reason after each one of the twelve steps below:
1) Don’t pay your premiums on time
2) Don’t tell your life insurance beneficiaries what company has your policy 3) Forget to take your ex-spouse off your life insurance policy
4) Neglect to make a home inventory
5) Don’t bother to review your insurance policies every year
6) Blow off open enrollment for health insurance
7) Have a baby but don’t add the little one to your health insurance plan within 30 days of birth
8) Get a DUI
9) Buy a new car but don’t tell your insurance company
10) Drive for Uber
11) Loan your car
12) Make claims for every little scratch and dent
You and I both know that any and all of the above items are extremely obvious and can wreak havoc on your insured and their coverage, however how many times do you truly review these points and actually even mention them to a customer? It may sound silly, but perhaps it just might be prudent upon you and your staff to at least consider discussing them with your clients, so that you don’t have to chat with your E&O carrier about it after the fact.
Integration is so 90’s … single platform is the next generation!
So to those of you who have been reading my column for the past six and a half years, you know that I very rarely ever pro- vide “plugs” to individual carriers or technology vendors, especially to one that I may have a vested interest in.
However, in this case, since I receive from so many of you and on a daily basis numerous calls and emails me asking me about what new technology might be the best fit for your agency, I thought it would be a good idea to share this new information with you, right here in my column:
An industry study released by Future One, a collaboration of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) and leading independent agency companies (hailed as the most comprehensive look at the independent agency system) have shown industry technology leader EZLynx is now the fastest growing agency management system.
With that said, opinions gathered of insurance agency employees indicate that working with multiple carrier interfaces (aka the “re-keying” of risk information data among different programs) is the chief technological challenge for the independent agent who is quoting multiple carriers at one time for a single insured or prospect. This challenge has then bred the question that has always puzzled the agency sector with respect to technology, “Why must we use multiple products to accomplish a common goal? Why can’t one technology vendor develop a single product that will bring us the same results of multiple programs?”
Well, the EZLynx Management System, built from the ground up with this goal in mind, is combined with the EZLynx Rating Engine, and produced one single web- based program with a seamless integration of features (comparative rating, agency management system, and other various tools) rather than separate products from multiple vendors that merely “integrate” at best, designed to improve efficiencies, reduce expenses, and help to eliminate an agency’s errors and omissions exposure.
Listen, don’t just take my word for it, give me a call and I would be happy to show you exactly what I am talking about. As an insurance broker, insurance technology professional, and insurance journalist whose duty is to provide the readers of my column with the latest in insurance technology advances, I would be remiss if I did not share this information with you.
So, who’s ready for more snow here in the northeast? I guess thanks to AL Gore and global warming (or was that the inter- net that he invented?), we have been blessed with mostly an uneventful snow season. However it looks like all bets are off for this week, as another two feet of “stuff ” is predicted to hit our area. But don’t let this dampen your trip to Brooklyn, NY, to attend the PIA Metro RAP conference, as this is going to prove to be one of the best PIA RAPs yet (congratulations to my friend Dina Bruno from MetLife Auto and Home who chairs the event).
Well, that’s what’s happening around town, and until next time, ciao for now!
