Insurance

Have you been watching those commercials about insurance agents being encouraged to swim with sharks or play with wild animals- lions I believe? Those commercials came to mind yesterday when I spoke to an agent about a home insurance policy that I manage for a relative.

Earlier in the week, I had received a phone call from the agent suggesting that we should discuss saving money. I am all for that even if I am saving a relatives money; there is a sense of accomplishment in that. Catching up on calls yesterday, I called her and reminded her that she had called with the offer to save money.

Here are the wonderful and exciting opportunities:
A. increase libel insurance to $2,000,000 because there are cases around the world with these kind of settlements. My relative lives in a condominium, there are no stairs to fall and slip on. I can not imagine what could possibly happen in his unit but wait- this is libel insurance. Libel is what I heard her say. Libel? My relative does not have any means of libeling (slanderous language - not on a blog or facebook and he will not be quoted in print.) Either way, I rejected this.

B. Liability insurance-increase it. I asked if my relative is responsible for the whole building or just the unit he occupies? Just his unit. I pointed out that the only people who visit are very close relatives and that is was not likely that they would sue.

C. Third suggestion was that we might like to change the deductible from $500 to $1000 since it has been found that most people are choosing not to claim the $500 deductible. I asked her if she knew why most people choose not to make small claims. She seemed very puzzled and I pointed out that if we make a claim, our insurance payments increase no matter how many years we have been making payments and despite the fact that the problem was not the claimants fault. Of course people are avoiding making claims and the increase to $1000 deductible is a win-win for the insurance company. I had to laugh at the audacity of the insurance company and congratulated the agent on giving me a topic for my blog today.

I know that insurance companies are businesses but they have not been scrupulous in their dealings with clients otherwise those ads would not strike a chord with most of us.