This shout out from our friend “UW”: “I have read some posts here and I’m a little surprised that you ALL have such a great understanding of policy forms (promulgated & filed)…..
Thank you also for assessing the “sad” skills of your agents.
While we agents know that while many UW simply UW new and renewal risks using the templates provided to them, we invite you into the real world so that you can show us how to differentiate often arcane coverage differences to a buying public that has been conditioned by advertisers to perceive personal insurance as a commodity.
One reason; failure of the agent to explain the policy. Let’s be honest. Who’s the person in the best position to evaluate a homeowner’s risk, recommend a product, and explain what is covered and just as importantly, what isn’t covered? The agent. When there’s a coverage issue who catches the crap? The insurance company. A good agent will make a presentation that explains 80% of what a policy will and will not due. Unfortunately, about the same percentage of agents fail to do so.
No doubt, it’s the agent that is the best person to explain. I blame the companies, too, since they are the source of the written contract. There are companies that have outstanding policy benefits, yet they bury these in legalese endorsements deep in the policy. Why not spell out these benefits in a clear manner in the first page or two, as an overview of coverage (with the usual disclaimers.) Plus, with modern policy issuance systems, there’s no reason not to apply for approval of policy forms that do not rely on endorsements that change the policy.
Richie and Kevin-two good points of view, however consider what percent of the insurance buying public would either sit down and chat with their agent or read and remember the contents of a coverage over-view. This is Homeowners, not a $100,000 commercial account. Its my opinjion that homeowners don’t know what’s covered becuase they don’t want to take the time at the point of purchase.
Isn’t everything covered? Just ask a jury of the peers of the claimant. Scary thought isn’t it. Print a list of all options available from the companies you represent and have the insured sign off on what they don’t want. Oh! Be prepared to sell a bit more insurance premium for trhe endorsements chosen. After all is the insured after coverage or price. This should be the first question in any dialogue with a prospect.
Actually Kevin, form filing laws make that somewhat difficult. Most states require that all policy forms be filed and that the form filed be in the same format as the form sent to the insured. Given the number of coverage options, it is not practical to file every iteration which could apply. If the filing laws were updated, it would then become much more practical.
Is it any wonder that consumers do not understand their policy. It is written in something resembling Chinese. I had my attorney read through it (3) times…he finally instructed me to ask my agent.
Terms of policy aren’t consumer friendly for a reason….so we don’t understand what isn’t covered.
My experience, as a good multi-line agent, is it takes me a good hour with a client before they sign a homeowners application (auto too)explaining just the high points of coverage. If they would get interested in the product to the extent covered in the article it would take two days to explain the if’s, and’s and but’s, unlesses, and so on and so on.
And even after that, people have a selective memory at loss time. Example: “Remember Mrs Wilson I told you theft of jewelry is limited to 1500 in the aggregate unless you schedule items of high value. Or, ” Remember I told you about the named perils covering personal property, and that mysterious disappearance (losing it)isn’t covered unless it’s scheduled”
Oh yea…people only remember what they want to remember, don’t read the policy, don’t ask for an explanation, and then attempt to project the problem to someone else. Most people will not come in annually for a review of their coverage no matter how hard you try.
Such is life in the P&C world.
I’ve worked with plenty of good agents who couldn’t get an insured to sit for the thorough, professional overview that they wanted to give and would give well, or even a quickie version of same. You start explaining a policy and your average homeowner glazes over in 5 minutes. And NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, reads their policy.
Kevin L., the documents that are written are typically geared towards someone with an 8th grade education, so anyone should understand it (in theory). Problem is, no one reads the contract and makes a list of questions to ask. I work for a company and while the insured should be going to their agent for questions, I would gladly help if they were to call me.
Twenty years ago, when I was in the agency business, my wife got a call from a direct writer asking if she would take a “survey” about her Homeowners Policy. They proceeded to ask her a bunch of questions, none of which she could answer- until they came to the final question-“When was the last time you saw your agent?” Her reply, “I slept with him last night.”
As most people don’t read the policy and do think everything is covered it is our job to remind them that is not the case. But, you can only teach them so much at the time of the sale and they probably won’t remember it anyway. We do take time to point things out but we try to sell them the best policy at the time of closing and hope they don’t have that un-covered loss. Having an experienced agent helps.
I have read some posts here and I’m a little surprised that you ALL have such a great understanding of policy forms (promulgated & filed). Over the years in underwriting it has been my experience the agents don’t have a good grasp of coverage. So it really doesn’t surprise me their customers are also in the dark. The first thing I was told over 10 yrs ago when I started in insurance “be careful what you promise”. I would assume the agents would rather not talk about it and hope they don’t get asked a question they don’t know the answer to. Most personal lines agents are just selling on price anyway. Just a state of the current P&C market… sad, really sad.
Seems like when I have a coverage question the UW refers me to the claims dept (which is what I prefer anyway). Just like an UW to not know anything about how the agent/client process. Typically the UW doesn’t talk with the insured so they have no idea what the “public” is really like. The typical insured does not want to know every detail until it’s too late. That’s why the package policy was developed in the first place.
Many agents employ a sales strategy in which they work closely with mortgage brokers to acquire leads/referrals. Many of the insureds never see or meet their agent. Those insureds certainly don’t know what they have.
After having worked on both sides (agency and carrier) I can say you are all right and wrong. It is a circular problem in that insureds don’t care about their insurance unless there is a claim or a bill for their premium (and it is too high in their opinion). I’ve never heard a person say, “Man, for what I get in coverage, I pay a fair price.” Most people outside of insurance only care to complain about the cost of insurance- they never get into coverage conversations. When I talk to friends/family, the most common theme is, “I don’t know what I have or need- I just get the cheapest available.” So, an agent could talk to an insured about coverages and the policy until they are blue in the face and the only thing the insured will walk away with is how much they paid.
As far as underwriters not helping answer coverage questions- we are not supposed to do so (as per the company) and it makes sense. Underwriters are not claims adjusters and cannot (and should not) play “what if” games. Calling an underwriter and saying, “If x,y,z happens, is there coverage?” is not intelligent. The underwriter is not a claims adjuster and does not determine where coverage exists. They are versed in where something is listed in a policy and what forms are attached as per the request of the agent. So, any answer an underwriter gives could completely be false given the situation. Without knowing or seeing all variables in a claim situation, a simple “would this be covered?” is asking an underwriter to guess based on variables they “think” will happen. Not really wise. At least a claims adjuster can go off of what they have seen/dealt with in previous claims scenarios and can give a more rounded answer.
Joan, you could not be more right! The mere notion of an agent presuming it is the u/w job to answer coverage questions explains, in part, the dis-connect between agents and uw. (meanwhile, we all know how hard it is to get claims professionals to opine about how coverage may apply to even hypothetical claims). And it is an axiom that consumers only take the time to discern the real value of protection provided by a policy after a claim. Our job as agents: to remind consumers that waiting until after a claim to examine their coverage is an invitation to disaster. I, too, have performed in both an uw and agent capacity, and bristle a bit when others presume to have ‘all the answers’. Helping the public make well informed decisions is a more challenging job than most UW understand.
I underwrite P&C and I simply offer to send a sample policy if there are “what if” questions by hesitant prospects, and let the insured read the policy or get an attorney to assit them. Besides, our reinsurance treaty doens’t allow for us to interpret coverage. A safe response is to tell agents or insureds that each claim stands on its own merits
That sounds all well and good, but I put myself in the client’s shoes. I want to know what is covered. I dislike “gray areas” in insurance, and so do clients.
But I agree with what y’all are saying. An underwriter’s job is to tell the agent if they will accept the risk, not what is covered under the policy, but the underwriter should have some basic knowledge on “what coverage would we need to have X covered if Y happened”
Our treaty doesn’t allow us to interpret coverage . . . I find that hard to believe. Show it to me in writing. Sound like another excuse to pass the buck. I’m not saying I think it is the job of an underwriter to interpret coverage, but when questions arise an underwriter with good knowledge of their companies product can be quite an asset.
I can’t speak for all UWs, but I work with claims dept frequently and review claims on a regular basis. I file forms in the admitted market and write forms in the non admitted market. Providing answers to agents questions is part of my job and I generally don’t mind doing it. But for crying out loud, agents seem to have very little knowledge and expect UWs to do their work for them. Read the policy forms (which we will send on the FIRST request) and ask us to fill in the gaps. If you don’t want to live in “gray areas” and want to provide warranties for your clients, be my guest. Just make sure our marketing dept has a current copy of your E&O. Oh, and the claims depts responsibility is to PROCESS claims, not satisfy your what ifs… You are paid a commission for a reason, earn it please.
I was referring to questions that can’t be found the the manuel. I personally have all the underwritting manuels for every company I write on a regular basis saved on my computer and I review it often, but it is virtually impossible to write a manuel that covers everything, and thats why we have underwriters.
We DO earn our commission by placing the business with you in the first place. If not for the agent, you would either 1) not be in business anymore, or 2) have to deal directly with the clients and all their questions. you think agents have a lot of questions, how many more do you think clients have? If you hate the independant agents so much, deal directly with the clients and see your loss ratio jump thru the roof.
So let’s see, it’s not your job (UW) to answer coverage questions, it’s not the job of the claims dept (they only process claims), and it’s not the job of the agent to “provide warranties” (I assume by warranties you mean – concrete answers to coverage related questions?) So who does the insured or agent turn to? I always thought that the agent’s role was to answer specific “peril” related questions and then refer the customer to the company claims department if they started asking the “what if” questions. But after reading the UW post, I guess I’ll just refer the client to their attorney?
What sets one broker apart from another is knowledge. Insurance people, in general, are not always considered professionals. Yes the Accountant and Lawyer of a company hold a different image. An Insurance broker should consider each client important. I have heard salespeople refer to clients as customers and since we are trying to further a business relationship it is not a a rewarding mindset.
After 25+ years in the business I consider myself a risk manager not an insurance salesperson. Yes, I am selling, but price is not my bottom line keeping the client year after year is my goal. Yes, it is true that commercial policies are taken more seriously and carry higher premiums. A good agency will have well trained people each with specialized knowledge to assist the Producer make the right choices. But we need to keep up as well as we are all in this together. Some of my largest commercial accounts have been developed from just an HO policy.
Thats what I’m wondering. I can understand what UW is saying, that an agent does need to think and look stuff up before calling them about coverage, and that its not underwriting’s job to determine if a claim would be paid, but wouldn’t they want to give a definate answer on coverage before the client gets and attorney? If an UW can not give me a sure answer on “yay’ or “nay” that can leave an impression that they do not know if they know thier own product or not, or that the company is wishy washy and would be very slow to pay out a claim. If that is the case, I’ll place my client with a company that WILL give me an answer.
All these points are excellent. I think the bottom line is that the public needs to find an agent who can meet their expectations of what they are looking for. Some clients are looking for protection and some are shopping on price. It’s an agents responsiblity to determine what the client is interested in protecting as well as go through coverages that the product does and does not have, expecially vs other markets they may represent. If an agent is selling on price alone, which some do, it will not be a fun day when the client reports a claim. As far as UW, they should have a good understanding of the contract and be able to answer many questions…the what if’s. However, at the end of the day, they will not be handling the “what if” claim so if it’s not a clear cut claim, wouldn’t you prefer to speak with the claims department?
I have worked as an agent, an underwriter and in marketing. I have to chuckle at most of these posts. Some of you don’t seem to be dealing with top notch companies.
Please don’t misunderstand the message. I often answer questions and don’t hate the agents who sell my product. We write manuals for the underwriting acceptability and even put out reference guides for our agents. I’m not sure what a manuel is… When coverage questions come up in the field, I would hope the agents first step would be to read the policy and endorsements. Policy interpretations will inevitably come into play and thats when to bring in a UW, rep or claims adjuster. Just a side note, the best loss ratios and highest volume producers call the least. I’m guessing you are not one of them. Best of luck to you, and I hope you are not one of my agents… Oh and I can’t believe I wasted so much time giving you the most rudimentary information.
I hope I don’t write your company either, but I doubt it because all the companies I write love hearing from me and don’t mind one bit on the occasion that I might have to call them with a question. And they acutally understand that they are there as support for the agents that write them, and that if the agents stop writting them, they are out of a job. Sorry, but from what I am reading, you seem to not to understand that “rudimentary” concept, so don’t try and talk down to me. SWFL Agent is correct in that claims adjusters only want to talk to you if there is a claim. So, who can answer a coverage question if the agent can’t find it in the company guidline, and according to you, its not the underwriters’ job, and the claims adjuster can’t take time out to spend all day on asking “What if…then” questions because, you know, they are busy handling claims.
And you are wrong about my agency not being one of the highest producers for companies that I write. We are a top producer for a well known company that we write.
While he did actually use the word “please”, the tone of all of his posts are not only sanctimonious, but suggest he just MAY be trying to get others to become as angry and offensive as he is. One day, UW may one day join the ranks of those of us who dare to examine and explain various different coverage forms to clients and show us all just HOW it should be done. Or — he will continue to waste his employer’s time (while deciding whihc of his agents calls are not too bothersome), not promulgating or underwriting very much, sitting in his cubicle sending angry rants on IJ.
UW: The rates “you” promulgate not only need to account for our commissions, but your company’s uw expenses (your salary, and those who are not managing you). Stop posting angry rants on IJ and earn the salary you are paid through your company’s policyholders and the agents who submit those accounts.
I hope that you are an UW and that I write your company if you are.
It boils down to “Would you rather talk to a licensed agent such as myself, or a client that has no idea how insurance works?”. UW, next time an agent calls you and asks you a question that is just a waste of your time, think about this. It could be a lot worse. It could be 100 clients (well, if your tone in Ij is likewise how you talk to your agents/clients, then I would bump that down to 25) calling and asking the same question. “When is my payment due, how much, and why is it so high?!” Or think about this, yes, you have the agent’s E&O info on file, but even if you have to file on their E&O, thats still more headache that your company would not have had if you were more willing to answer agent’s questions. But then again, from your posts, it seems that you might be a “pass the buck” kind of person. “Hey, I’m not the one that has to do extra paperwork because the agent told an insured something was covered when it wasn’t”.
I am an agent in Texas. We went from standardized forms to individual carrier forms for house insurance about 6 years ago. The consumers are confused because each agent/carrier is offering a slightly different policy. Worse of all, some agents are regularly misinterpreting policies for carriers they don’t represent. I don’t believe those agents lying – they just don’t know any better and have not taken the time to research their competitors new policy forms. Sometimes that information can be difficult to access. I would like to see Texas go back to only standardized forms with a large number of endorsements which carriers can chose to offer or not offer.
UW: In Texas the agents have had to contact underwriting more frequently because of the new form home policies. Sometimes the agent training for these new forms missed a topic.
Every customer that we have that own a condominium unit are under the impression that “they don’t need insurance”. The fact of the matter is, is that each unit owner is responsible to “THEIR” unit. That means from the walls in. The permanentaly affixed cabinetry; bathroom vanities; floors; carpet and their personal belongings. Suffice it to say that idea is hard to get across to the potential insured. Some people try to get away with just covering what the company requires, however we try to convince them it is important to insured replacement cost even on a condominium. As for personal belongings, we always tell people to use full replacement cost for their personal property. Yes, it is more expensive, but fully worth it if there is a total loss.
As a former agent I can say with with absolute certainty …., there are 2 things clients never understand, no matter how many times you explain it: 1. Automatic transmissions and 2. Insurance.
This shout out from our friend “UW”: “I have read some posts here and I’m a little surprised that you ALL have such a great understanding of policy forms (promulgated & filed)…..
Thank you also for assessing the “sad” skills of your agents.
While we agents know that while many UW simply UW new and renewal risks using the templates provided to them, we invite you into the real world so that you can show us how to differentiate often arcane coverage differences to a buying public that has been conditioned by advertisers to perceive personal insurance as a commodity.
One reason; failure of the agent to explain the policy. Let’s be honest. Who’s the person in the best position to evaluate a homeowner’s risk, recommend a product, and explain what is covered and just as importantly, what isn’t covered? The agent. When there’s a coverage issue who catches the crap? The insurance company. A good agent will make a presentation that explains 80% of what a policy will and will not due. Unfortunately, about the same percentage of agents fail to do so.
And your statistics are from?
No doubt, it’s the agent that is the best person to explain. I blame the companies, too, since they are the source of the written contract. There are companies that have outstanding policy benefits, yet they bury these in legalese endorsements deep in the policy. Why not spell out these benefits in a clear manner in the first page or two, as an overview of coverage (with the usual disclaimers.) Plus, with modern policy issuance systems, there’s no reason not to apply for approval of policy forms that do not rely on endorsements that change the policy.
Richie and Kevin-two good points of view, however consider what percent of the insurance buying public would either sit down and chat with their agent or read and remember the contents of a coverage over-view. This is Homeowners, not a $100,000 commercial account. Its my opinjion that homeowners don’t know what’s covered becuase they don’t want to take the time at the point of purchase.
Isn’t everything covered? Just ask a jury of the peers of the claimant. Scary thought isn’t it. Print a list of all options available from the companies you represent and have the insured sign off on what they don’t want. Oh! Be prepared to sell a bit more insurance premium for trhe endorsements chosen. After all is the insured after coverage or price. This should be the first question in any dialogue with a prospect.
Actually Kevin, form filing laws make that somewhat difficult. Most states require that all policy forms be filed and that the form filed be in the same format as the form sent to the insured. Given the number of coverage options, it is not practical to file every iteration which could apply. If the filing laws were updated, it would then become much more practical.
Is it any wonder that consumers do not understand their policy. It is written in something resembling Chinese. I had my attorney read through it (3) times…he finally instructed me to ask my agent.
Terms of policy aren’t consumer friendly for a reason….so we don’t understand what isn’t covered.
My experience, as a good multi-line agent, is it takes me a good hour with a client before they sign a homeowners application (auto too)explaining just the high points of coverage. If they would get interested in the product to the extent covered in the article it would take two days to explain the if’s, and’s and but’s, unlesses, and so on and so on.
And even after that, people have a selective memory at loss time. Example: “Remember Mrs Wilson I told you theft of jewelry is limited to 1500 in the aggregate unless you schedule items of high value. Or, ” Remember I told you about the named perils covering personal property, and that mysterious disappearance (losing it)isn’t covered unless it’s scheduled”
Oh yea…people only remember what they want to remember, don’t read the policy, don’t ask for an explanation, and then attempt to project the problem to someone else. Most people will not come in annually for a review of their coverage no matter how hard you try.
Such is life in the P&C world.
I’ve worked with plenty of good agents who couldn’t get an insured to sit for the thorough, professional overview that they wanted to give and would give well, or even a quickie version of same. You start explaining a policy and your average homeowner glazes over in 5 minutes. And NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, reads their policy.
Kevin L., the documents that are written are typically geared towards someone with an 8th grade education, so anyone should understand it (in theory). Problem is, no one reads the contract and makes a list of questions to ask. I work for a company and while the insured should be going to their agent for questions, I would gladly help if they were to call me.
Twenty years ago, when I was in the agency business, my wife got a call from a direct writer asking if she would take a “survey” about her Homeowners Policy. They proceeded to ask her a bunch of questions, none of which she could answer- until they came to the final question-“When was the last time you saw your agent?” Her reply, “I slept with him last night.”
As most people don’t read the policy and do think everything is covered it is our job to remind them that is not the case. But, you can only teach them so much at the time of the sale and they probably won’t remember it anyway. We do take time to point things out but we try to sell them the best policy at the time of closing and hope they don’t have that un-covered loss. Having an experienced agent helps.
I have read some posts here and I’m a little surprised that you ALL have such a great understanding of policy forms (promulgated & filed). Over the years in underwriting it has been my experience the agents don’t have a good grasp of coverage. So it really doesn’t surprise me their customers are also in the dark. The first thing I was told over 10 yrs ago when I started in insurance “be careful what you promise”. I would assume the agents would rather not talk about it and hope they don’t get asked a question they don’t know the answer to. Most personal lines agents are just selling on price anyway. Just a state of the current P&C market… sad, really sad.
Seems like when I have a coverage question the UW refers me to the claims dept (which is what I prefer anyway). Just like an UW to not know anything about how the agent/client process. Typically the UW doesn’t talk with the insured so they have no idea what the “public” is really like. The typical insured does not want to know every detail until it’s too late. That’s why the package policy was developed in the first place.
Many agents employ a sales strategy in which they work closely with mortgage brokers to acquire leads/referrals. Many of the insureds never see or meet their agent. Those insureds certainly don’t know what they have.
After having worked on both sides (agency and carrier) I can say you are all right and wrong. It is a circular problem in that insureds don’t care about their insurance unless there is a claim or a bill for their premium (and it is too high in their opinion). I’ve never heard a person say, “Man, for what I get in coverage, I pay a fair price.” Most people outside of insurance only care to complain about the cost of insurance- they never get into coverage conversations. When I talk to friends/family, the most common theme is, “I don’t know what I have or need- I just get the cheapest available.” So, an agent could talk to an insured about coverages and the policy until they are blue in the face and the only thing the insured will walk away with is how much they paid.
As far as underwriters not helping answer coverage questions- we are not supposed to do so (as per the company) and it makes sense. Underwriters are not claims adjusters and cannot (and should not) play “what if” games. Calling an underwriter and saying, “If x,y,z happens, is there coverage?” is not intelligent. The underwriter is not a claims adjuster and does not determine where coverage exists. They are versed in where something is listed in a policy and what forms are attached as per the request of the agent. So, any answer an underwriter gives could completely be false given the situation. Without knowing or seeing all variables in a claim situation, a simple “would this be covered?” is asking an underwriter to guess based on variables they “think” will happen. Not really wise. At least a claims adjuster can go off of what they have seen/dealt with in previous claims scenarios and can give a more rounded answer.
Joan, you could not be more right! The mere notion of an agent presuming it is the u/w job to answer coverage questions explains, in part, the dis-connect between agents and uw. (meanwhile, we all know how hard it is to get claims professionals to opine about how coverage may apply to even hypothetical claims). And it is an axiom that consumers only take the time to discern the real value of protection provided by a policy after a claim. Our job as agents: to remind consumers that waiting until after a claim to examine their coverage is an invitation to disaster. I, too, have performed in both an uw and agent capacity, and bristle a bit when others presume to have ‘all the answers’. Helping the public make well informed decisions is a more challenging job than most UW understand.
I underwrite P&C and I simply offer to send a sample policy if there are “what if” questions by hesitant prospects, and let the insured read the policy or get an attorney to assit them. Besides, our reinsurance treaty doens’t allow for us to interpret coverage. A safe response is to tell agents or insureds that each claim stands on its own merits
That sounds all well and good, but I put myself in the client’s shoes. I want to know what is covered. I dislike “gray areas” in insurance, and so do clients.
But I agree with what y’all are saying. An underwriter’s job is to tell the agent if they will accept the risk, not what is covered under the policy, but the underwriter should have some basic knowledge on “what coverage would we need to have X covered if Y happened”
Our treaty doesn’t allow us to interpret coverage . . . I find that hard to believe. Show it to me in writing. Sound like another excuse to pass the buck. I’m not saying I think it is the job of an underwriter to interpret coverage, but when questions arise an underwriter with good knowledge of their companies product can be quite an asset.
I can’t speak for all UWs, but I work with claims dept frequently and review claims on a regular basis. I file forms in the admitted market and write forms in the non admitted market. Providing answers to agents questions is part of my job and I generally don’t mind doing it. But for crying out loud, agents seem to have very little knowledge and expect UWs to do their work for them. Read the policy forms (which we will send on the FIRST request) and ask us to fill in the gaps. If you don’t want to live in “gray areas” and want to provide warranties for your clients, be my guest. Just make sure our marketing dept has a current copy of your E&O. Oh, and the claims depts responsibility is to PROCESS claims, not satisfy your what ifs… You are paid a commission for a reason, earn it please.
I was referring to questions that can’t be found the the manuel. I personally have all the underwritting manuels for every company I write on a regular basis saved on my computer and I review it often, but it is virtually impossible to write a manuel that covers everything, and thats why we have underwriters.
We DO earn our commission by placing the business with you in the first place. If not for the agent, you would either 1) not be in business anymore, or 2) have to deal directly with the clients and all their questions. you think agents have a lot of questions, how many more do you think clients have? If you hate the independant agents so much, deal directly with the clients and see your loss ratio jump thru the roof.
So let’s see, it’s not your job (UW) to answer coverage questions, it’s not the job of the claims dept (they only process claims), and it’s not the job of the agent to “provide warranties” (I assume by warranties you mean – concrete answers to coverage related questions?) So who does the insured or agent turn to? I always thought that the agent’s role was to answer specific “peril” related questions and then refer the customer to the company claims department if they started asking the “what if” questions. But after reading the UW post, I guess I’ll just refer the client to their attorney?
What sets one broker apart from another is knowledge. Insurance people, in general, are not always considered professionals. Yes the Accountant and Lawyer of a company hold a different image. An Insurance broker should consider each client important. I have heard salespeople refer to clients as customers and since we are trying to further a business relationship it is not a a rewarding mindset.
After 25+ years in the business I consider myself a risk manager not an insurance salesperson. Yes, I am selling, but price is not my bottom line keeping the client year after year is my goal. Yes, it is true that commercial policies are taken more seriously and carry higher premiums. A good agency will have well trained people each with specialized knowledge to assist the Producer make the right choices. But we need to keep up as well as we are all in this together. Some of my largest commercial accounts have been developed from just an HO policy.
Thats what I’m wondering. I can understand what UW is saying, that an agent does need to think and look stuff up before calling them about coverage, and that its not underwriting’s job to determine if a claim would be paid, but wouldn’t they want to give a definate answer on coverage before the client gets and attorney? If an UW can not give me a sure answer on “yay’ or “nay” that can leave an impression that they do not know if they know thier own product or not, or that the company is wishy washy and would be very slow to pay out a claim. If that is the case, I’ll place my client with a company that WILL give me an answer.
All these points are excellent. I think the bottom line is that the public needs to find an agent who can meet their expectations of what they are looking for. Some clients are looking for protection and some are shopping on price. It’s an agents responsiblity to determine what the client is interested in protecting as well as go through coverages that the product does and does not have, expecially vs other markets they may represent. If an agent is selling on price alone, which some do, it will not be a fun day when the client reports a claim. As far as UW, they should have a good understanding of the contract and be able to answer many questions…the what if’s. However, at the end of the day, they will not be handling the “what if” claim so if it’s not a clear cut claim, wouldn’t you prefer to speak with the claims department?
I have worked as an agent, an underwriter and in marketing. I have to chuckle at most of these posts. Some of you don’t seem to be dealing with top notch companies.
Please don’t misunderstand the message. I often answer questions and don’t hate the agents who sell my product. We write manuals for the underwriting acceptability and even put out reference guides for our agents. I’m not sure what a manuel is… When coverage questions come up in the field, I would hope the agents first step would be to read the policy and endorsements. Policy interpretations will inevitably come into play and thats when to bring in a UW, rep or claims adjuster. Just a side note, the best loss ratios and highest volume producers call the least. I’m guessing you are not one of them. Best of luck to you, and I hope you are not one of my agents… Oh and I can’t believe I wasted so much time giving you the most rudimentary information.
I hope I don’t write your company either, but I doubt it because all the companies I write love hearing from me and don’t mind one bit on the occasion that I might have to call them with a question. And they acutally understand that they are there as support for the agents that write them, and that if the agents stop writting them, they are out of a job. Sorry, but from what I am reading, you seem to not to understand that “rudimentary” concept, so don’t try and talk down to me. SWFL Agent is correct in that claims adjusters only want to talk to you if there is a claim. So, who can answer a coverage question if the agent can’t find it in the company guidline, and according to you, its not the underwriters’ job, and the claims adjuster can’t take time out to spend all day on asking “What if…then” questions because, you know, they are busy handling claims.
And you are wrong about my agency not being one of the highest producers for companies that I write. We are a top producer for a well known company that we write.
While he did actually use the word “please”, the tone of all of his posts are not only sanctimonious, but suggest he just MAY be trying to get others to become as angry and offensive as he is. One day, UW may one day join the ranks of those of us who dare to examine and explain various different coverage forms to clients and show us all just HOW it should be done. Or — he will continue to waste his employer’s time (while deciding whihc of his agents calls are not too bothersome), not promulgating or underwriting very much, sitting in his cubicle sending angry rants on IJ.
UW: The rates “you” promulgate not only need to account for our commissions, but your company’s uw expenses (your salary, and those who are not managing you). Stop posting angry rants on IJ and earn the salary you are paid through your company’s policyholders and the agents who submit those accounts.
I hope that you are an UW and that I write your company if you are.
It boils down to “Would you rather talk to a licensed agent such as myself, or a client that has no idea how insurance works?”. UW, next time an agent calls you and asks you a question that is just a waste of your time, think about this. It could be a lot worse. It could be 100 clients (well, if your tone in Ij is likewise how you talk to your agents/clients, then I would bump that down to 25) calling and asking the same question. “When is my payment due, how much, and why is it so high?!” Or think about this, yes, you have the agent’s E&O info on file, but even if you have to file on their E&O, thats still more headache that your company would not have had if you were more willing to answer agent’s questions. But then again, from your posts, it seems that you might be a “pass the buck” kind of person. “Hey, I’m not the one that has to do extra paperwork because the agent told an insured something was covered when it wasn’t”.
I am an agent in Texas. We went from standardized forms to individual carrier forms for house insurance about 6 years ago. The consumers are confused because each agent/carrier is offering a slightly different policy. Worse of all, some agents are regularly misinterpreting policies for carriers they don’t represent. I don’t believe those agents lying – they just don’t know any better and have not taken the time to research their competitors new policy forms. Sometimes that information can be difficult to access. I would like to see Texas go back to only standardized forms with a large number of endorsements which carriers can chose to offer or not offer.
UW: In Texas the agents have had to contact underwriting more frequently because of the new form home policies. Sometimes the agent training for these new forms missed a topic.
Every customer that we have that own a condominium unit are under the impression that “they don’t need insurance”. The fact of the matter is, is that each unit owner is responsible to “THEIR” unit. That means from the walls in. The permanentaly affixed cabinetry; bathroom vanities; floors; carpet and their personal belongings. Suffice it to say that idea is hard to get across to the potential insured. Some people try to get away with just covering what the company requires, however we try to convince them it is important to insured replacement cost even on a condominium. As for personal belongings, we always tell people to use full replacement cost for their personal property. Yes, it is more expensive, but fully worth it if there is a total loss.
As a former agent I can say with with absolute certainty …., there are 2 things clients never understand, no matter how many times you explain it: 1. Automatic transmissions and 2. Insurance.