Starting the New Year Right

I hope everyone had a good holiday season. I had one of ups and downs. At the beginning of the season, we needed to replace our air conditioning unit, so we called an HVAC contractor. Several men came, replaced the broken AC and tested the air ducts to make sure the correct flow took place. The worker asked if he could use my step stool; I asked him to sign a waiver to indemnify from liability. He looked at me like I was nuts and refused, so I refused too. I told him to get his own and use it. New York state’s unique and ridiculous Labor Law 240/241(a), which gives me enough concern to have this exchange, needs to change.

Around Thanksgiving weekend, I was woodworking at my vacation home in the Berkshires. I am an avid woodworker and I know right from wrong when I use machines which can be dangerous. One of the first things you learn about using them, even as a hobbyist is: Don’t feed small pieces of wood into a planer. But I did, albeit with a pusher stick, a token caution, and the stick speared my left hand—and I’m a lefty. After 18 stitches, my wife and I decided to go home to Long Island directly from the emergency room near Great Barrington.

Now, if this had happened not at my vacation home as a hobby, but rather on the job site, workers compensation coverage would have responded and compensated me. If it took place in New York state and on the job site, I would have been covered with protection from the state’s Labor Law–regardless if I were following rules, fooling around or even drunk on the job site. Even though I know I was wrong to disregard well-known safety standards, the law in New York mandates that my employer would pay. I wonder if we will ever achieve reasonable reform to this unique and faulty law.

My holidays went on less than merrily when a client to whom I sold a multi-million dollar life insurance policy with one of the largest carriers in the county, had to change the beneficiary on her policy so that her children would be protected in case something happened to her. This was a very simple change of beneficiary, which insurance carriers do every day: “All children of said marriage or survivor or survivors share and share alike.” The change form was returned by the carrier incorrectly, naming the insured’s estate first and then everyone else as beneficiary. This set into action a chain of ineptitude. The first call I made was to a call center in what was obviously a foreign country. The person on the other end of the call did not understand what we were trying to do and transferred us to a call center in Omaha—not the main office which is in the Northeast. That call center representative thought he knew what we were talking about and a second endorsement was issued. Alas, his understanding proved incomplete. This fiasco was repeated at least four or five times over the course of several weeks until, four days prior to New Year’s Eve, it was finally done correctly. The client and her lawyer were understandably frustrated. Why do carriers use call centers in foreign lands when many capable Americans could resolve these situations without making several calls? I know good workers can be costly, but we agents pride ourselves with excellent customer service and making processes easy for our clients. I can’t go through this with another client, and for that reason I will not place any more business with this carrier.

I recently completed consulting work for a client wherein I conducted a bid on their behalf.  The incumbent broker rarely had contact with his client other than by conference call. He also submitted his bid electronically rather that arranging to do so in person. His primary competition for the bid did schedule a meeting with myself and the client.  He went through every line item of the bid and also provided his plan of contact, in person, with my client should he be awarded the bid. As you probably have guessed, the incumbent came in with a much lower bid and retained the account.

Afterwards, my client said that they want the other broker back to quote next year as they very much would rather be doing business with him, as they definitely feel the incumbent broker bought their business this year. The moral of my story here is that our client relationships should never be taken for granted.  If you get an account for price you will eventually lose that account for price unless you are visible and show the account you have earned the privilege to continue to write their insurance. I felt badly for the broker who did not get the bid, but I do feel good about helping my consulting client understand what a real professional insurance agent or broker does for their clients!