Life Insurance Intelligence An Oxymoron?

The mega agencies online are really starting to make us life insurance agents who take our time and try to do a good job look like we’re part of a clueless industry. I had an Intelliquote former client (declined last week) call today and tell me that he just didn’t understand what they were trying to tell him (Banner and Intelliquote). They had declined him, according to the Banner letter, “due to current alcohol use and sensitive confidential lab results.” According to the letter, “A copy of your lab results have been mailed to you under a separate cover.”

I asked him to send me the letter, labs and along with that he sent the alcohol questionnaire Banner had asked him to complete. This guy is an executive of a large resort and didn’t really strike me as ignorant or a drunk. When I asked him about his claim that he, at most, had 4 beers a week, he replied, “With my job, raising children and working out 6 days a week, something that he enjoys doing with his wife, according to him he didn’t have the time or the inclination to drink.” So I reviewed his labs looking for something egregious like a positive CDT, or maybe positive cocaine use or maybe even positive Hep C or HIV. Those are about the only things on labs that are really considered “sensitive confidential results”.
So I perused the labs thinking and looking for the worst. With alcohol being where the finger was pointing I expected liver functions off the charts and a positive CDT, alcohol marker. Even though he was convincing there had to be something bad there if they send the labs in a separate envelope from the decline letter. And the killer information was, well, not there. His labs were not only not sensitive, they were stellar. Since they usually only run a CDT if liver functions are out of normal I looked there first and this guy could sell his liver for big bucks. And there was no CDT. The only lab result that wasn’t normal was on his lipid profile. He has too much good cholesterol.

He called Intelliquote and told them the labs were completely normal but they just referred him to the appeals process that Banner had laid out in their letter. They wiped their hands of it. I mean the guy must be a lush if Banner said those things about him, right?

So now I’m thinking MIB. It is possible that somehow MIB has made an error and someone else has a drinking problem and sensitive confidential lab notation that is noted in his report. I’ve asked him to pull a report.

But here’s the deal the way I see it. I’ll get this straightened out and I will win his and his wife’s business because of it which is fine by me, but what is with Intelliquote just blowing this guy off when he can prove that there was an underwriting error? Are they so busy that can’t take a look at the labs and call the company and ask what’s up? If it is an MIB hit, why don’t they help the guy get it straightened out? And surely Banner wouldn’t decline based on MIB information with nothing to back it up.

Bottom line. Nothing I am seeing is making me think the mega internet agencies are anything more than mindless grinder mills with no investment in their customers. If you feel like you’ve be wronged or mistreated by one of the big agencies and want to see how it feels to have an agent that cares, call or email me directly. My name is Ed Hinerman. Let’s talk.