I always laugh a little when I call a fairly new potential customer and someone else answers. When I asked to speak to the customer they will often turn and say, “it’s that insurance guy.”
I can tell you that when a life insurance agent does most of their business over the phone, until the customer knows you and knows your telephone number (thanks to caller id), we are stuck somewhere between that insurance guy and just another telemarketer. You need to know that I have never called on anyone that did not solicit a life insurance quote and provide their phone number. I am also somewhat amused that people are occasionally miffed when you call about their inquiry, when they made the inquiry and they supplied their phone number.
Fortunately, once professionalism and expertise is shown and trust is built, an agent can actually be elevated to friend, advisor, even financial professional.
Bottom line. “That insurance guy” is an OK place to start. I love this business. I love the opportunity to provide real protection from the unknown for families. I am humbled when clients put their trust in my opinion and abilities.
July 21st, 2007
Clients are always surprised that their alcohol use can be an underwriting issue. Whether a person has been through alcohol treatment, has had a DUI, or just consumes higher than average amounts of alcohol, they present an underwriting challenge on more than one level.
Alcohol abuse carries with it both health and lifestyle issues that, without a doubt, have a mortality risk appropriately attached. When a life insurance underwriter is considering someone who has abused alcohol extensively enough to require treatment, they have to weigh the health issues such as liver damage and the life style issues such as alcohol induced depression and suicide, as well as the tendency toward DUI and the associated dangers inherent to that.
Heavy drinkers are often surprised when they are declined without ever having had a DUI, ever having been through treatment, or for that matter, ever admitting to the agent or the company that they even drink. What they didn’t expect was that, in general, if someone is drinkng excessively, whether there is any serious damage or not to the liver, the liver function tests on their labs will likely be elevated to some extent. When liver functions are elevated that generally will trigger another test that is an alcohol marker. If that comes back positive, you are not an occasional drinker unless you consider life to be the occasion. With elevated liver functions and a positive alcohol marker, I can’t think of any insurance company out there that wants to participate in your insurance.
Generally, as long as a DUI appears to be more reflective of a bad decision than a lifestyle, a good independent agent can find a company that will insure you within a year at very fair rates. Like speeding tickets, the further out you get from a DUI, the better the rates get and when you get 5 years out we can generally get a number of companies that are willing to consider their best rate class. Two DUI’s will present a bigger challenge because it has then passed over into a probable lifestyle issue. Multiple DUI’s is a tough sell anywhere until a person has a track record or an established change in the life style.
As with DUI, the further you are from alcohol treatment, the better the rates. Most companies are very cautious on this as the recurrence of alcohol abuse after treatment is substantial. A good track record and 10 years of demonstrated sobriety is usually what it will take to get back to the best rates.
Bottom line. Don’t try to slide heavy drinking through by just not mentioning it. You are better off admitting your alcohol use and letting your agent shop it. Understand that from a life insurance standpoint, alcohol abuse is treated very seriously and for very good reason.
July 21st, 2007
Skin cancer is probably one of the most common forms of cancer, especially here in the sunny southwest and growing up in the Rocky mountains as I did with very little between us and the sun’s uv rays. Sunscreen didn’t show up on the scene until I was in my 20’s and with sun being the cause of more than 90% of skin cancer, that puts many who grew up in uneducated and unprotected times at risk.
There are three types of skin cancer. Basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and the most vicious of the three, melanoma.
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common of the three and accounts for about a million new cases of skin cancer each year according the the Skin Cancer Foundation. While basal cell in fairly detectable and treatable, left undetected and untreated, “it can be resistant to treatment or locally aggressive, damaging the skin around them, and sometimes invading bone and cartilage. When not treated quickly, they can be difficult to eliminate. Fortunately, however, this is a cancer that has an extremely low rate of metastasis, and although it can result in scars and disfigurement, it is not usually life threatening”, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.
From a life insurance standpoint, companies seem to be split on how seriously they view basal cell. Just a few years ago it was not a rateable issue at all, even if you had several instances of basal cell over the years. Now, most companies will not offer preferred rates for multiple instances. This seems to have risen from a study that shows that people that get skin cancer have certain traits that make them susceptible to more instances. Multiple instances seem to increase the chance of developing a melanoma. Many still offer their best rate if there has only been a single instance. On the upside for both the life insurance companies and the customers, once a person has been diagnosed with skin cancer, they tend to get very regular checkups which is one of the keys to early detection and successful treatment.
Squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common form of skin cancer with about 250,000 new cases each year. Like basal cell, detected early, it has a very high success rate for treatment. Again, life insurance companies in general aren’t too brutal if there has only been one case, but multiple instances will be looked at more carefully. This is another instance in which a good independent agent should be engaged to help. With companies literally all over the underwriting map on basal and squamous cell carcinoma, you need an agent that knows where and where not to take your business.
That brings us to melanoma and just why life insurance underwriters take this form of skin cancer very seriously. Again, turning to the Skin Cancer Foundation, they define melanoma this way. “Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer. However, if it is recognized and treated early, it is nearly 100 percent curable. But if it is not, the cancer can advance and spread to other parts of the body, where it becomes hard to treat and can be fatal. While it is not the most common of the skin cancers, it causes the most deaths. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2007, there will be 8,110 fatalities, 5,220 in men and 2,800 in women in the U.S. The number of new cases of melanoma is estimated at 59,940; of these, 33,910 will be in men and 26,030 in women.”
While death is a fairly rare occurrence with the first two types of skin cancer, melanoma is a seriously invasive cancer unless caught very early. Even if you have survived melanoma, insurance underwriters are cautious in their underwriting decisions for several years after successful treatment.
Bottom line. Those of us that grew up pre-suncreen and pre-skin cancer awareness, should get checked by a dermatologist on a fairly regular basis. Those of you who grew up in an era when we knew more about the risk should protect yourself.
July 21st, 2007
