Don't Shoot Your Insurance
What’s more annoying than bare feet on a sticky floor or fingerprints on the window? Maybe a slow computer that takes forever to load up or waiting at a traffic light that never turns green? These are a few of my own pet peeves and maybe you can relate. Or maybe I've just publicly divulged my own obsessive compulsive irritabilities. Wanna know what else annoys the heck out of me? Overpaying for insurance. ‘Doesn’t matter if it’s life, health, auto, home, disability or business insurance. Any kind of insurance. And while saving people and businesses money on their insurance is my job, I still find it troubling that no matter how hard I try, my very own policy premiums are higher than I wish they’d be, no matter how many ways I’ve tried to slice, dice or manipulate the system.
So what gives?
No one (other than pocket protector-wearing actuaries) really wants to hear the reasons why the industry charges what it does for the insurance products we consumers are required to purchase. All we know is that on top of groceries, utilities, internet, cellphones, kids activities, car and mortgage payments, home maintenance expenses, medical bills, clothing, schooling, gasoline, tolls and taxes, insurance is just another parasite that eats away at our bank account. And because it's an intangible commodity, there is rarely any pleasure obtained from the purchase. Rarely do you see someone out in public waving around their policy declaration pages in search of acceptance or as a symbol of acheivement. Nor have I ever seen a license plate read, “ILUVINS”.
No matter where you fall on the financial freedom spectrum, one aspect I’ve noticed holds true among all demographics: the only folks who truly appreciate a well-tailored and thoughtful insurance policy is he or she who has had to utilize the coverage due to some catastrophe that happened to them personally, or someone close to them who would have otherwise suffered tremendously without it. This holds true for life, health, disability, auto, home and business lines. We pay and pay and pay the premiums year after year after year in hopes that we never have to use the coverage. And then when we do, DING! In the penalty box we go. What other product can you think of that works in this way? Find me one, and I’ll find you a sales professional who struggles with conveying the importance of his or her offering.
That last sentence brings me to another point; “sales”. I personally can’t stand sales people, even though I’m one of them. If someone rings my doorbell at 8 p.m. on a Friday night asking if I’d like to have a new roof and windows installed, do you know what goes through my mind at the moment I get up to answer the door? Well, in an attempt to keep this article clean, I’ll refrain from telling you. But unless you wholeheartedly welcome complete strangers into your home and relish in the thought of throwing hard-earned money at someone you’ve never met before, then I suppose we react similarly to solicitors.
Even though selling is a necessary form of survival in a capitalistic society, I don’t like to consider myself a salesperson, but rather a conduit to a specific need that someone may have. And when it comes to insurance and its many intricacies, I’m able to find the value in what a reputable agent has to offer. I have yet to find a one-size-fits-all insurance solution for any subset of clientele I do work for, and therefore take great pride in matching my clients’ needs to suitable coverages.
In summary, I’d like to conclude with the assumptions that 1) nobody wants to pay for something they can’t find value in; 2) nobody wants to spend more on a product or service than they absolutely have to; 3) “sales” has negative connotations even though it’s such an integral part of how we, as Americans, obtain the things we need; and 4) when it comes to protecting what’s important to us, it pays to have someone you know and trust as part of your personal “advisory panel”, or “wheelhouse” as a good banking friend of mine calls it. You wouldn’t go to a doctor for legal advice, and you wouldn’t ask an accountant what the highest efficiency heating unit to maximize your home’s energy savings would be. Same holds true for insurance. Even though my phone takes pretty nice pictures, you wouldn’t find me photographing a wedding.
Gabe Schick is a licensed insurance agent for Makefield Agency, Inc., headquartered in Yardley, Pennsylvania, serving the insurance needs of businesses, not-for-profit organizations, families, and individuals located throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He can be contacted at (215) 321-0281 or (609) 240-1767 or by email at [email protected].