We got a preferred rate approval on a client today. This is a client who had come to me after feeling, well, jerked around and lied to by Selectquote.

The Selectquote agent who worked with this client was all about banging out an approval and moving on to the next client. Even if you overlook the original bait and switch where he quoted Banner preferred plus rates, got the client to do an exam and then broke the news that it looked like it would more likely be standard plus rates. Even if you overlook the fact that the agent lied and told him that the standard plus rate was really as good as it was going to turn out anyway.

Even if you overlook the fact that the agent admitted that Prudential could do better after being confronted with a quote through our office and then ran an application through them, on September 1 the agent sent the client an email that just really can’t be overlooked.

“Prudential gave you a Preferred rate but Banner and Genworth will not. JLT”. The same agent inferred that it was unethical to run a third application for this client, “Ethically I cannot submit yet a third application on your behalf and promise you better pricing. Based on the underwriting thus far (cholesterol medication and the use of Paxil) through the first two applications and my experience with Genworth that carrier will not deliver a Preferred rate.”

Ethically this agent ought to know the companies he represents and their underwriters well enough to know that Genworth was the company to go with in the beginning. He ought to be familiar enough with Genworth underwriting to know that cholesterol medication has no impact at all on the rate (preferred best is OK with cholesterol medication) and that treatment for situational depression with Paxil is preferred at worst with Genworth.

Genworth did approve preferred. JLT with Selectquote was wrong on this case from beginning to the end where his client sought an agent that would shoot straight with him.

Bottom line. Something I’ve contended for a long time is that an agency like Selectquote who hangs their hat and their future on volume sales can’t really humble themselves to service before, during or after the sale. Having worked for a few years at a Selectquote clone I can tell you that it is all about fast selling and hopefully placing whatever the outcome is. When you tell a client that it is unethical to try a third application, what JLT was really saying is that their business model doesn’t support doing whatever it takes to do right by the client.

I left that clone agency because they refused to service clients. I’ll never place anywhere close to 100,000 policies a year and that’s OK.