Archive for April 29th, 2009
When the view out the office window looks like this sometimes it feels like we are protected by those 14,000 foot peaks from the real world. Thanks to fiber optics and the internet we can sit here and do life insurance business with those out in the “real world” and never have to really participate in it.
Until today. With the World Health Organization, WHO, raising the Pandemic level to 5, we were wondering if even our mountains could be breached. I get the local paper here in the mail everyday. Even though I could get our little 16 page paper online, I still wait until I get the mail each day to see the headlines. Usually pretty boring until today when it reported that there may have been a case of swine flu right here in Salida.
This is certainly all new territory for us, the country and the world. I can’t say that I remember WHO ever giving a Pandemic alert before. And the foreign travel advisories and warnings are certainly active which has already changed plans for several people I know. While this flu situation has caused the government to warn people not to go to Mexico, it has moved our neighbors to the south to the top of the alert list.
I know the question will come up this week. A client will call and ask, “if they happen to travel to Mexico or have traveled to Mexico and happen to get swine flu and die from it, are they covered”? And of course the answer is yes.
Bottom line. Who knows where all of this is going. It really seems so small to have the whole world on edge the way it does, but I suppose that’s the way most big things start.
April 29th, 2009
There are days that stand out for me in life. My marriage. The day I gave my heart to Jesus. Each day that I have been able to deliver a death benefit check to a family of a client.
There are people who touch me and make a difference. Today I had an opportunity to share prayer with an 80 year old life insurance client of mine who’s business has been rocked by the recession. Imagine! 80 years old and still working everyday and living life the way you should, being honest and playing by the rules, and getting your tail kicked anyway. I can’t even begin to explain how this hurts my heart. All I could do was listen, pray and then put him in touch with a Dave Ramsey counselor. I feel blessed that I could be there for him when he needed someone to talk to.
There is a blessing that comes from no where, well of course from God, but seemingly out of the blue. There are moments or even something on internet that gives me hope.
Bottom line. I am humbled by life.
April 29th, 2009
When I got my briefs in a bunch earlier this year in a little spat with ING Reliastar, on the surface it would seem that we were arguing semantics. Just underneath the surface is a gray area about half the size of the universe where life insurance companies seem to make underwriting decisions just because they can, and because it makes more money for the company. In their mind there is no overriding need for logic.
And I scream, “Show me the mortality risk”!!!!! Back in the day (been wanting to say that) I distinctly remember being taught as a new agent that underwriting decisions were based on mortality tables and mortality experience. Forgive me, but there is no stinking difference in mortality experience that anyone can show me between a cholesterol ratio of 5.0 and 5.1. In this particular instance we were fussing about a guy whose total cholesterol was 253. His HDL was 49.6 and they said it needed to be 50.6 in order to get preferred rather than one rate class difference. That one rate class change would have made his premium 30% higher. Show me the 30% higher mortality risk!!!
I realize that there have to be lines drawn in the sand. There are readings that can change a little and truly do have a noticeable, dramatic mortality experience impact. Someone with prostate cancer whose grade was a Gleason 6 can get good rates on life insurance and a Gleason 7 is scratching to get any offers at all. That’s because the difference between those two grades is like the difference between an earthquake Richter scale 6 or a 7. One shakes you up and the other knocks your house down.
I have never been one to fuss with underwriters when they have a legitimate reason for changing a rate. I can handle the fact that they have guidelines that they need to follow, but when they call them guidelines and to the detriment of common sense, they treat them as hard and fast, set in concrete rules, we have a problem. This may just be the world according to Ed, but if a company can’t show the difference in mortality experience between their “guideline” and, for instance, a specific lab result, the default should go to common sense.
Several states have already force companies to take this approach when it comes to foreign travel. Unless a company is willing to supply mortality experience that shows travel to a certain destination is an additional risk, they can’t decline or rate someone for that travel. Some states have even taken the stance that absent mortality tables for foreign travel, a company can’t even ask about foreign travel.
Bottom line. While I do occasionally fuss, the truth is that most life insurance underwriters are willing to give a fair hearing and make a fair decision, but for those that won’t or don’t, again I scream, “Show me the mortality risk”.
April 29th, 2009
