There is a certain insurance company (no names) that now has a record with me of their agents not telling the truth.
To begin with I am not one of those (like radio and on-line advertisements) that show up at a potential client with best, best rates, what I call God rates. I actually do some field underwriting to see what rating the client may expect to receive. When there are excess medical problems I'll do a query with underwriting (trial app) to get a preliminary rating. I also let the client know that even the preliminary rating isn't solid until after full underwriting.
OK, now back to the story. In January a current client called me and wanted to get life insurance for his wife. After talking with him I found that she had health problems, even to the point of having some colon removed. I did a preliminary app. and gave him my quotes. He said his current auto/homeowner agent also quoted but said his wife would get the best quotes his company has to offer. I asked how the agent knows this, my client said...because the agent told me. Ok, after a lot of back and forth, my client went with the other agent. The end of the story was that the policy was issued standard table 4 which is a far, far cry from the best quote the company has to offer. My client never told me, his father told me. I have no idea the cost of the final premium.
I just got off the phone with a previous client. She and her husband want life insurance. I went through the same initial protocol and found that she is in the mid 50's, has arterial fibrillation, is on 5 different daily meds, her husband is over mid 50 and a diabetic. I did a trial app and quoted premiums that reflect what they may expect to receive. The wife just let me know that they have received quotes from their AO/HO agent (same company from the story above). She want 75,000 of life insurance. Her current AO/HO agent told her that she won't need a paramed or blood taken, only an application to be taken on her. Let me get this correct, does anyone know of a life insurer that won't draw blood for $75,000 of insurance?
If this is true it is an insurance company waiting for one pile of adverse selection problems. Plus they'll probably have a lot of non smokers that are really smokers in their book. Could they be doing some type of underwriting at the time a claim is filed giving them a large denied claims ratio?
Call me a sceptic but from the previous match with one of the agents representing this company in question........I don't believe it. :unsure:
Agent Truth
Moderators: Josh, independent guy
Yea, actually after posting I started to think about it. It's been probably 7 years since I wrote a life policy for under $100,000. I started thinking that I do know of some companies that will do simplified UW for under 100,000. One does simplified for up to 50,000, no paramed and is basically a two tier rating structure. Either you are issued a contract or you are declined. It's just that knowing her health situation, I was kind of amazed that a company wouldn't want to draw blood. The company in question has two rating tiers, non tobacco and tobacco and at 5'2" - 240 pounds I wonder which category she will fall under.????
After a bit of undercover work what I found is; they will APS first to see if they even want/need to do the blood. So nobody can be sure if blood will or won't be taken or if an offer will be made. I don't know, I guess I'm different because I never like to come back and tell a client something different so I doubt if I would have said no blood work. I would have told them about the APS and possible blood work but that is unknown.
I asked how the underwriter knows if the person applying is truly a non smoker. I had to giggle when I heard what they told me......they said, the applicant signs a statement and attests to being a non smoker. Yes, none of us has ever had a non smoker become smoker after the lab results. How does that go, oh I was out drinking and had a cigarette. You can bet you bottom dollar these people do some investigating / underwriting during claim time. I remember back in the eighties there was an insurance company that had horrible claim denials and terribly long periods to wait for a check.
This is a company that 2 years ago had their life unit go from A+ to A. In the era of AIDs and many other STD blood borne illnesses, I find it hard to believe you can get up to $99,9999 without blood drawn. A $200 lab test is cheap insurance against a $99,999 potential claim. A client can have a deadly bug or disease and never know it. A saliva swab would be cheap insurance for the underwriter. :unsure:
After a bit of undercover work what I found is; they will APS first to see if they even want/need to do the blood. So nobody can be sure if blood will or won't be taken or if an offer will be made. I don't know, I guess I'm different because I never like to come back and tell a client something different so I doubt if I would have said no blood work. I would have told them about the APS and possible blood work but that is unknown.
I asked how the underwriter knows if the person applying is truly a non smoker. I had to giggle when I heard what they told me......they said, the applicant signs a statement and attests to being a non smoker. Yes, none of us has ever had a non smoker become smoker after the lab results. How does that go, oh I was out drinking and had a cigarette. You can bet you bottom dollar these people do some investigating / underwriting during claim time. I remember back in the eighties there was an insurance company that had horrible claim denials and terribly long periods to wait for a check.
This is a company that 2 years ago had their life unit go from A+ to A. In the era of AIDs and many other STD blood borne illnesses, I find it hard to believe you can get up to $99,9999 without blood drawn. A $200 lab test is cheap insurance against a $99,999 potential claim. A client can have a deadly bug or disease and never know it. A saliva swab would be cheap insurance for the underwriter. :unsure: