You say “we have become pretty good at anticipating what the various underwriters will do regarding certain conditions. The fact is, when presented with a fact situation like this, based on our experience, we have two options”.

Paraphrasing those two options, you can conservatively quote standard, which you did, or quote preferred and take the chance that you may be wrong.

The third option, which you didn’t mention, and apparently because of your experience, didn’t employ, is to lay the information in front of underwriters on an informal basis and see what they recommend. Frankly, in today’s underwriting climate, to “anticipate” what you believe an underwriter will do, rather than asking an underwriter what they will do, seems inadequate on behalf of your client.

Your insinuation that lower quotes come from either inexperienced or lying agents is occasionally true, but, as you know, lower quotes quite often come from good agents that do legitimate homework and produce lower approved and placed rates.

However, I wanted to clarify some things about AccuQuote and our business. First, we believe it is our responsibility to be honest with consumers regarding their likely underwriting class, up front. There is no conspiracy to charge more, in order to make more money. If we did that, we’d soon find ourselves quoting all day, but taking no applications.

After having placed nearly 100,000 policies in force, we have become pretty good at anticipating what the various underwriters will do regarding certain conditions. The fact is, when presented with a fact situation like this, based on our experience, we have two options:

• Knowing that standard is very likely the best case scenario (even though preferred is a long shot possibility) we can be “aggressive” and quote preferred, which inevitably creates a large number of disappointed consumers who will yell at us when the carrier underwrites it as standard… often rejecting the policy as something more expensive than we “quoted”…! Remember… we don’t determine the rates. We simply make some very experienced and educated guesses as to what the underwriter will or will not do.

• Alternatively, when we expect possible underwriting issues that would likely make preferred rates unlikely, we can quote standard, knowing that if the proposed insured qualifies for preferred rates the underwriter will issue preferred, in which case our clients are elated. If however, it comes in standard, as expected, our clients are not disappointed, but rather satisfied, and more importantly they are covered!

We have absolutely no incentive whatsoever to quote higher rates on the front end. In fact, we risk losing the opportunity to handle their application. Why? Because there always seems to be another agent… either inexperienced at what to expect from the underwriting process, or knowing full well what to expect, but willing to lie (by quoting a lower rate) in order to induce the consumer to apply.

As you know, quoting and delivering are two entirely different things. The issue has absolutely nothing to do with compensation or commission.