In our industry being an advocate for our client is of paramount importance; whether it be at the beginning of the relationship when outlining solutions to needs; whether it be during the underwriting process when health history may impact underwriter’s decisions; or whether it be at claim time to ensure the benefit is paid, ultimately finding an advocate for your insurance needs is something we would strongly recommend.
An interesting example of the importance of this recently occured when underwriting a disability insurance contract.
A 60 year old – an active, marathon running and seemingly healthy applicant – applied for Long Term Disability insurance and was declined immediately by the insurance company with an accompanying statement that “there was no opportunity for reconsideration” due to findings on the ECG.
For us, a decline is definitely not the end of the discussion with the underwriters.
Whilst looking for an alternate option and working together with the applicant we had the original ECG that led to the decline forwarded to the applicants physician and then shared with a cardiologist.
After much expert review and discussion with an alternate insurance company, the net result was a standard and unmodified disability contract offer for the applicant. When this information was then shared with the original insurance company who declined the coverage in the first place – they too approved a standard disability contract.
While there are many issues to consider with this particular situation, the point of this article is that if we had accepted the decline with no argument and not intensely followed up and examined all possible reports and results – this individual would not have been able to secure coverage and would forever have had an insurance application decline on their records.
The financial advisors association within our industry is named Advocis – with a motto of Non Solis Nobis – “Not For Ourselves Alone“. It is important before undertaking any application for insurance to make sure that you have a good advocate at your side.
