(Make them disappear)
This Article was written in mid 2008 at the request of the editors of a magazine called Pravartak, the Journal of Insurance and Risk Management. Published in Volume III Issue 4, July-September 2008.
Learning to love the underwriting process or, at the least, learning to survive that thing life and health insurers do called risk selection! Just how does the financial planner and/or life agent get comfortable with the categorization of clients into the super good, better than average, non-smoking leftovers, smokers and really impaired lives? How does the underwriter get comfortable with the sales concepts of distribution, the whining of agents who feel oppressed by the arbitrary nature of risk of selection or the inability of agent to gather all the information both financial and medical from the applicant the first time?
Surprisingly you, if you are the agent and the source of all sales, are not alone as even the neophyte rookie unblessed underwriting candidate struggles these days with learning the "ropes" of what has become a very complex subject. It is all about communication which by definition includes speaking and listening.
The question asked by both those in the distribution channels and those trying to manage a new business process, which includes underwriting, has recently been answered by a company called LOGiQ3 Underwriting Solutions Inc. which tries to bridge the information chasm. This independent company stepped in to provide almost a mediation role in getting one underwriter (in the head office) to understand the other underwriter (agent in the field).
In the book "Again, Does It Make Sense" by yours truly, there is the very real example of the multimillion dollar case that would never have made it through the underwriting process in tact if it had not been started with a great explanatory letter to the underwriter — insurer and reinsurer wanted to get the case issued for the amount applied for! A wise and entrepreneurial company works with agents one on one to get cases front and centre and then eventually through the process.
Ross A. Morton, FLMI — Reassurer Advisor Mentor