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Peeve of the Week: Business Insurance Baited ‘n’ Switched

November 19, 2009
I have a tip.  Unfortunately it’s one that I learned the hard way.  It was during my annual insurance audit that the auditor started to make me feel uneasy.  He wanted to know the job titles and functions of the people in my company, which should have been pretty straightforward an exercise.  But it wasn’t.  See, he didn’t like the term, “assistant.”  When he asked me what our assistant “did,” I told him that it was an administrative role.  You know, phones, online research, appointments, mailings, filing, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, social networking and web updates.  Pretty standard, right?  Wrong.  He told me that my description wasn’t good enough.  So as I further tried to explain that it was a typical support job, I said how about, “Secretary?” “Executive” Assistant?” “Administrative Assistant?”  No.  No.  And NO!  What wasn’t he getting?  Surely, I am not the first business owner that this insurance company has insured who has an assistant.  Puzzled, we then asked what was wrong with our explanation.  It was the word, “admin,” he said. “They don’t like it.” They?  

Then he started asking questions.   “Does your assistant run errands?” He queried.  Patty and I looked at each other, recalling one incident when we had papers that needed to be picked up from our accountant’s office.  And then there was that time when he made a lunch run for us, so we answered, “Yes, I suppose, on occasion he does.  “Oh, OK, so messenger,” the auditor asserted. We shrugged and said, “Well, if you say so…kind of but not really.”
 
Fast forward.  It was several weeks ago when I got our new rates.  It turns out that our assistant was categorized as a messenger – and that’s it.  Why?  Because the rate they charge for a messenger is higher than for an employee who does not “leave” the office.  Ever?  How sleazy is that? This guy surreptitiously steered the conversation and manipulated our answers knowing full well that the information he was going to submit was not accurate, but that would pad the coffers of his company.  No wonder why people hate insurance companies.

So here's the tip: When you are getting insurance make sure you ask who they are calling what, get the specific characteristics that define their categories and compare the rates between and among titles/role classifications.  Meanwhile, who audits the auditors?

Posted by Donna Flagg on November 19, 2009 | Comments (1)