Frozen Sooner
7/18/2006, 12:36 AM
A few clients (and potential clients) I dealt with today:
A guy who has no other business with us wanted insurance for one day for a reception he was having for his daughter's wedding at a local golf course. I told him that I would be happy to write a policy for $750 to do this, but it would probably be easier and MUCH faster to go ahead and endorse his existing homeowner's policy to do the same thing-and would cost less than $100. This made him huffy and ask why I was refusing to help him. Twenty minutes later he called me back to tell me he did exactly what I suggested, it only cost him $20, and didn't I feel dumb. Er, not really. I was doing my ethical duty to suggest he do it that way.
Another guy who was getting non-renewed from a carrier and was switching agencies. I found out really quickly why he was being non-renewed: the company he was with was charging him $812/year for his general liability insurance. The price SHOULD have been more along the lines of $3600/year. The guy was underreporting his payroll by a LARGE margin every year and he finally got hit with an audit. When I told him what the premium was going to be, he got annoyed with me. Dude, I don't set the rates.
There's another guy who's starting up a remodelling business in rural Alaska. No prior experience owning a company, no prior experience managing construction. I told him at the outset, when he first called, that it was going to be tough to get him insurance-his profile is something the companies DON'T like. Told him to write up a resume and I'd do what I could-the resume allowed me to at least argue SOMETHING with the underwriter when they said the guy didn't know what he was doing. Now, it takes the guy a full MONTH to get the requested information to me, then he calls me every day to follow up. I keep telling him that as soon as I have a quote I'd let him know, but unfortunately it would take some time.
I finally get a quote for him, and believe it or not it's VERY reasonable. He's already called me TWICE today. And of course, I can't get in touch with him now.
Heh. And you know what? It's still 5x more fun than banking was.
A guy who has no other business with us wanted insurance for one day for a reception he was having for his daughter's wedding at a local golf course. I told him that I would be happy to write a policy for $750 to do this, but it would probably be easier and MUCH faster to go ahead and endorse his existing homeowner's policy to do the same thing-and would cost less than $100. This made him huffy and ask why I was refusing to help him. Twenty minutes later he called me back to tell me he did exactly what I suggested, it only cost him $20, and didn't I feel dumb. Er, not really. I was doing my ethical duty to suggest he do it that way.
Another guy who was getting non-renewed from a carrier and was switching agencies. I found out really quickly why he was being non-renewed: the company he was with was charging him $812/year for his general liability insurance. The price SHOULD have been more along the lines of $3600/year. The guy was underreporting his payroll by a LARGE margin every year and he finally got hit with an audit. When I told him what the premium was going to be, he got annoyed with me. Dude, I don't set the rates.
There's another guy who's starting up a remodelling business in rural Alaska. No prior experience owning a company, no prior experience managing construction. I told him at the outset, when he first called, that it was going to be tough to get him insurance-his profile is something the companies DON'T like. Told him to write up a resume and I'd do what I could-the resume allowed me to at least argue SOMETHING with the underwriter when they said the guy didn't know what he was doing. Now, it takes the guy a full MONTH to get the requested information to me, then he calls me every day to follow up. I keep telling him that as soon as I have a quote I'd let him know, but unfortunately it would take some time.
I finally get a quote for him, and believe it or not it's VERY reasonable. He's already called me TWICE today. And of course, I can't get in touch with him now.
Heh. And you know what? It's still 5x more fun than banking was.