Tuesday Morning Insurance Tidbit - Second Opinion

[InsuranceMan]

Happy Tuesday Morning again my Fellow ADI-ers,

     In today's quick Tuesday Morning Insurance Tidbit I am covering "second opinions".  Ah ... whether it is a serious medical condition, or a serious insurance condition, GET A SECOND OPINION!!!!!  Over the course of the last week I have experienced similar situations 3 different times with three different clients.  In two cases I had provided insurance proposals for their distilleries and they both came back and said, "My local agent seems to have a better/similar price."  I asked if I may see the proposals that they were each sent so that I could do a comparative analysis, because that is what I do ... I am a professional after all.  In one situation, the other agent was lower in premium by a few thousand dollars  ...  BUT WAIT FOR IT ........

     It was because we may as well have been comparing apples (in the other agents case) to apple red Ferrari's (in my case)!  The only similarity between the first two things is that apples and apple red Ferrari's are the same color, and the only similarity (if you could even call it that) between their proposal and mine is that they both were supposedly "insurance".  Not to kill you with detail, but suffice to say, I put together the high-end sports car package covering everything this client needed in order to have the coverage they needed, custom fit for them so that they can operate on a daily basis without worrying about loss, damage, injury, etc.  The other agent, oh dear me .... "the other agent" ... well lets just say they were only covering the buildings (no property, no General Liability, no products, no stock on hand, no liquor liability, no nada!!!!!), and they did not even do that correctly!!!!!!  I pointed all of this out to the client and asked that they go back to the other agent and ask for similar coverage to what I proposed.  The other agent said that they could not provide my level of coverage at any premium, so the distillery decidedly went with me for their coverage.

     The next situation was very similar in that there was a client that asked me to quote their coverage.  When I came back with the specifics of what they asked for, they said that it appeared my coverage was within a few hundred dollars of what they were paying.  I asked if I may look at their policy, they agreed.  What they did not keep in mind was that they just went through a large expansion, and substantial increase of sales over the last year.  Due to both of these things, they were able to add new equipment, more product on hand, etc.  I quoted them all of the NEW BIGGER NUMBERS that they asked for (as well as the new higher sales figures) and that the old policy did not contemplate.  I suggested they go back to their current agent and ask for a proposal that was in line with the values and sales I was given.  When the other agent came back to them, they were more than $5,000 higher than my proposal that the client thought was only a few hundred off.

     The last situation was a distillery that has been in business for a few years, but they have never changed their policy since they day they started.  They asked me to take a look at things after we discussed how things have changed over the years.  Upon review of their policy I found that they were woefully under-insured in every aspect and that due to their sales being so much higher last year, they were actually subject to an audit payment that was due.  We ended up reworking everything and they are now happy to be working with me where they know we will be updating things as need be. 

     The point to all of this is, I have spent 16 years working with insurance, and 7 (almost 8 now) of those years has been specifically working with distillery insurance.  I know what to look for, how to obtain what you don't have, and potentially rid policies of premium for things you don't need.  I have said it 1,000 times over, I love local.  I buy local where I live when I can ... but is your livelihood, your business, your dream, is that something you want to leave to chance with a local agent who has no idea how to insure your distillery???  Are you willing to let them cobble up some policy similar to a shoe store down the street that they write because they may think, "Well, insurance is insurance, it can't be that different.  At least I can make a few bucks!"?  Then, the worst part of it is, they send you a proposal to look at so that you can tell them if it looks good or not!!!!!!!  WHAT!?!?!?  If you were the insurance professional, you would do it yourself and I would be out of a job!  Get a second opinion!!!!!!

     If you chose to contact me for a second opinion, or someone else, please, at least do yourself a favor and get someone to look the proposal/policy over.  A few set of eyes are always better than one.  I will say though, if you found out you may have a medical condition that was pretty serious, would you go to a local General Practice Doctor for your second opinion, or would you seek out the best specialist you could find?  Well ... consider me Dr. InsuranceMan 2.0, the most specialized insurance doctor in the country.  The difference is, I have no visit/consulting fee.  My cost to take a look and offer my opinion is totally 100% free to you.  Give me a call, the doctor is in!

Best,

 

Aaron Linden (aka InsuranceMan/InsuranceMan 2.0) 

[Patio29Dadio]

Thanks InsuranceMan 2.0.  I am waiting for a quote from my agent and will reach out to you for a competitive quote. 

[InsuranceMan]

@Patio29Dadio, that sounds great!  I would love to assist you in any way possible.  If you have your current information that you submitted to them, I could certainly start working on things for you know if you like.  To get a jump on it so that we can keep your downtime between quotes to a minimum.  Just let me know your thoughts and I look greatly forward to working with you to give you another set of eyes.

Best,

Aaron