[Welcome Industry Radar readers!]
Regular readers are aware of our (ever growing) Stupid Carrier Trick series. Lesser known (and less populated) is our Treat Worthy Carrier series. I'm tickled pink to present our latest addition, Assurity Life Insurance Company.
I use Assurity primarily for blue and gray collar disability income plans. These are typically folks whom the "Big Boys" eschew in favor of doctors, lawyers and politicians. The particular case which has earned Assurity its place in the pantheon of "Good Guys" is somewhat unique:
Mike [ed: not his real name] works for a company which has tasked him with two seemingly unrelated jobs: one is inside sales, with little chance of major injury; the other involves some pretty hefty manual labor "out in the field." One of the primary factors in disability insurance pricing is occupation: more "hands on" jobs generate higher premiums. Because I tend to be fairly conservative in quoting policies, I erred on the side of caution and assigned Mike's case a relatively low occupation class, which resulted in a sizeable (but still reasonable) premium. I submitted his completed application, and waited.
A week or so later, I received an email from Assurity informing me of two things: first, that I had used an outdated app (my fault for not checking the date), which necessitated Mike having to complete a new one (not a huge deal, but my bad).
The second item regarded his occupation class: in reviewing the application, the underwriter noticed the dual jobs, and asked me to confirm with Mike more precisely the division of his labors. The underwriter felt that Mike may well qualify for a lower rate. So while Mike was re-completing the application, I had him be more precise in describing his typical day. We sent that off, and awaited an answer.
When the policy arrived, I was, to put it mildly, pleasantly surprised to see that the premium was reduced by some 40 percent; Mike had indeed qualified for the higher job classification.
This is an example of a carrier not just doing the right thing, but actively engaged in doing so. It is obviously a big part of their corporate culture. I pay little (if any) attention to carriers' "mission statements;" rather, I look at how they do business. It's obvious that Assurity looks for ways to make it easier on their clients (and would-be clients), and for that, they earn an IB Treat.
Kudos, Assurity Life.
[And a Very Special Thank You to Shannon Smith at Assurity]
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