Monday, August 27, 2012

How many of your insurance agency personal lines customers have ...

Unfortunately, it is not difficult to find real life insurance stories that detail?substantial claims. Certainly a fair number of these are on the personal lines side involving? homeowners, auto, boating or? some?type of recreational ?toy?. Face it,?many of these types of claims?can occur to any of your?customers. If that were to happen, would they be adequately protected?

How many of your personal lines customers have a personal umbrella? Hopefully you know the answer to that question but if you don?t, your agency management system should be able to provide the answer without much difficulty.

Next?develop a sales campaign that?educates these customers (without an umbrella) what an umbrella does and how much it would probably cost. Presuming that you have the current underlying coverage information (# of cars, homes, etc.) and that the underlying limits satisfy the carrier requirement, determining the premium?should be easily accomplished.?It is probably best to write to each customer providing this information advising them, if they are interested, to contact the agency to begin the application process. This written communication could be key if a problem developed down the road.

If it would be necessary for the customer to increase one or more of their underlying limits to satisfy the requirement, include this information?(and cost) in the letter.

When you provide them with a premium quotation,?either include multiple limit options or some statement that readily makes them aware that higher limits are available. If you were to only provide a $1,000,000 option, this might lead the customer to believe that $1,000,000 is enough. Claims over $1,000,000 certainly have and can occur to anyone.

What if no one buys the coverage? In all honesty, there is no doubt that additional sales will result but for those?electing to not buy the coverage, your agency has now further strengthened your E&O position through this communication.

For all new customers of the agency, be sure to discuss?umbrella coverage and / or include it on the various proposals. If the customer chooses?not to purchase the umbrella, look to get the customer?s sign-off and then retain this document in your agency management system.

One other note: a common E&O claim scenario involving personal umbrellas deals with ?gaps in coverage? between the actual underlying limits and those?limits required. As a result, be sure that the necessary underlying limits are in place at all times.

Source: http://www.agentseotips.com/2012/08/how-many-of-your-insurance-agency-personal-lines-customers-have-a-personal-umbrella/

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