by Insurance Maze » Fri May 02, 2008 09:50 pm
Unfortunately, there are bad insurance agents, just like bad doctors, bad accountants, bad lawyers, bad husbands, bad wives, bad insurance investigators, etc.
It seems that the only time the general public speaks of insurance agents, it's the time they have dealt with one of those.
Ok, for the good guys. How do you conduct your business on a daily basis and how do you present yourself to the general public?
Maze
It seems that the only time the general public speaks of insurance agents, it's the time they have dealt with one of those.
Ok, for the good guys. How do you conduct your business on a daily basis and how do you present yourself to the general public?
Maze
Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 09:50 pm Post Subject:
Renter's are the best. "Would you like a quote for renter's insurance?" "No, my stuff's not worth anything, I don't need it." "Even if you don't care about your property, do you have a reserve of $500,000 and unlimited funds for legal defense in case someone sues you?" "What?"
"It's only $117 annually and it'll save you $65 a year on your car insurance"
Does renters insurance cover the cost of finding a new place to live? Deposits, transfers etc? When doing restoration projects occasionally we would get a rental fire and typically the renter would have no insurance. So they of course lost all their furniture. clothes and personal belongings. In most cases if they were month to month the landlord refunded the remaining month's rent and gave them the boot. He didn't care, he was going to get loss of income anyways.
Needing to come up with first, last and security, staying in a hotel temporarily, meals, all that could add up quickly. I was just curious if coverage was offered for that.
JS
Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 11:18 pm Post Subject: insurance
That same senario happened, at the apt building where I live. About 4 years ago, 'we' had a HUGE fire in the building across from me. The building had 6 apts in it. The ENTIRE building burnt to the ground. Nobody, who lived there, had Renters Insurance. However.....the apt building is owned by the County. SOO...............the County ( and the Red Cross) put these people up at hotels, motels, etc..in the area.
Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 12:40 pm Post Subject: Agent Conduct
Not to overstate this, but I keep in mind that God sees all. I make mistakes, as a person and insurance agent, but I try to run my business by being up front and honest. You don't have to believe in God to be an upfront or honest person. It's a crucial part of my life though. I've known and met agents who were not very honest on both sides of the fence.
Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 03:01 pm Post Subject:
You are absolutely right about that. Earlier in life I was not living right and the things I did wrong followed me a long way. The good thing is that when you do right by people that also follows you a long way too. I am thankful that god saw fit to straighten my life out and make me a better person. My life has been blessed ever since.
Mac
Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 04:06 pm Post Subject:
Does renters insurance cover the cost of finding a new place to live? Deposits, transfers etc?
In most cases yes. It's called Loss of Use/Additional Living expense coverage.
All policies are not the same so if you rent, call your agent and ask for an explanation or just look it up in your policy.
Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 11:13 pm Post Subject:
I agree with what everyone is saying. Honesty is the best policy......
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 04:28 pm Post Subject:
Somehow we came all the way from "Honest and Reliable Insurance Agents" to what's covered under a renter's policy.
How did that happen?? :roll:
From what I've read so far, we've talked about a person's faith and doing everything possible to be honest and open with a client or potential client.
But what happens when an insurance agent makes an "honest" mistake?
A doctor can leave a sponge inside a person during surgery and normally the only thing that happens is that the doctor removes the sponge, then everyone is ok.
A car dealer can sell you a used car with a bad alternator, then fixes the alternator, then everything is ok.
It seems that insurance agent's are held to a higher standard of professionalism than most any other profession. I mean, when an insurance agent makes a mistake, everyone hears about it.
Why is that?
Maze
Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 11:25 am Post Subject:
good question, I never really thought about it that way.
Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 03:02 am Post Subject:
I think one of the main reason that insurance agents are held to a higher standard is the fact that insurance is an intangible product that people can not see or hold in their hand. This is compounded by the low level of understanding by the general public on how insurance actually works.
The policy documents are many times difficult for many people to understand so they tend to overly rely on a trained agent to give them a general idea on how their policy works when first signing up.
In the situations described above, the evidence of a problem such as my car is a lemon or a surgical mistake, the evidence is right there and evident in fron to everyone to see, like my car I just purchased doesnt work, or see there is a sponge inside of me. It is easier to fix and most people are happy with that. Honest mistake.
When it comes to having a problem with an insurance policy the only evidence is he said/she said. Yes, a crroked agent may have lied about a product, but the policyholder might have misunderstood or misinterpeted what an agent said, so everything is unclear.
I know as an agent that many times I have been with a client describing product benefits and I have seen their eyes glaze over or seem to stare off into the distance. What if they didn't hear something important because they werent paying attention? I have had to deal with this several times.
When it comes down to insurance it is the responsibility of the policy holder to read and understand their policy, but when their policy does not perform to their expectations it is much easier to accuse an insurance agent of being a crook than to admit they cant understand their policy.
mac
Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 08:00 pm Post Subject:
When it comes down to insurance it is the responsibility of the policy holder to read and understand their policy, but when their policy does not perform to their expectations it is much easier to accuse an insurance agent of being a crook than to admit they cant understand their policy.
I'm sure glad you said that and not me, because everyone would have expected it from me. 8)
People, being people, often hear what they want to hear. For example if an agent tells a life insurance applicant - "If we design the premiums properly in this Universal Life policy and the interest rates stay at least at the level they are now, based on current projections, you can stop paying premiums on your policy after 10 years."
Now, exactly what did the policyholder hear? Well, I can guarantee you that if you call on this person in 10 years, here's what will happen -
"Well, I don't understand, you told me when you sold me this life insurance policy that I could stop paying premiums after 10 years."
This has happened to me.
What does the agent do now?
Maze
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