Life/Health Breakout sessions: Your challenges—Your best practices
Top challenge cited for this group was captured in one word: education. Health and life products can be complex and the educational needs for policyholders are almost endless. The topic was determined to be multi-faceted:
Challenge: Education for…
• Compliance with ACA
- Satisfaction with policyholders
- Undisclosed information on supplemental products
• Life insurance
- Riders (especially riders for children)
- Education of consumers on the purpose and benefits
• Disclosures
- Need for plain language
- Importance of marketing to ensure understanding and to comply with guidelines
• Juvenile Contracts
• Rescissions
• Financial literacy
Best practices
Here’s what was identified as the top ideas to address the issue of education—for consumers on all life and health insurance products (especially those identified above):
- Have consumer services department (those closest to the consumer) work with marketing in the construction of disclosures and educational messages
- Create actual dos and don’ts for agents (maybe use actual case studies)
- Strong company involvement with marketing for agents and in meetings and training to make sure proper ethics, values, information is deployed across producer group
- Ensure agencies provide additional training and receive copies of complaints
- Provide quarterly meetings with sales staff
- Ensure the right, well-trained, personnel works with the DOI AND consumers
- Establish a team of experts within each corporate entity
- Seek regulator feedback and assistance to resolve issues AND provide training
- Ensure consumers know how to reach out to DOI or appropriate agency
- Proactively reach out to consumers when a key life event occurs (reminder notices always good)
- Proactively verify applications via phone or with a questionnaire after sales
The challenges of the year being addressed by best practices…the sessions adjourned for the day.
