Non Renewing HO3, cannot reach policyholder

[Policy Monkey]

How about C: Go to the client's home and find out what's happening?

In P&C, house calls are generally a thing of the past. Besides, the house could be hours away, clear on the other side of the state.

 

[Policy Monkey]

There are a number of issues with this "theory"
1. What are the chances that an agency never actually calls anyone to tell them they missed a payment? I mean their largest client? Their best friend? A referral from a Real Estate Agent? A Spouse? Etc? Think this one through. "Sir are you saying you have never called a client, any client to tell them that their insurance payment was missed?"

2. The theory rests on what seems to be successful lawsuits against agencies [In other words agencies successfully sued for money] with no bearing on the Frequency or likelihood of potential litigation. If you are away on sabatical and fail to open your mail, your email, and your voicemail for three weeks and find that your house burns down and your insurance was not inforce are you more or less likely to sue your agent if you have 2 emails, 1 text, and 1 voicemail from the agent?

3. Does that feel like the right thing to do?

When it comes to E&O, the "Best Practice" rule is to either call every client every time, or none of them, never. Anywhere in between and you leave your self exposed. Granted, in the real world both options are impractical and inconvenient, but we do the best we can.

 

[Allen Trent]

That does happen. Or they could be on vacation. Or they could be in the hospital. (With all the seniors here in Florida, we see that a lot.)

Now that we are down the rabbit hole of possible reasons they are not responding to the agent------they could have been in DC trying to insurrect or could be in Iowa campaigning to become President if the client is Ron Desantis.

 

[Allen Trent]

In P&C, house calls are generally a thing of the past. Besides, the house could be hours away, clear on the other side of the state.

Do you think this has any correlation to the relatively large spike in recent decades in claims & losses. If agent isnt seeing the house for interior or exterior condition & relying on potentially older Google or Zillow images, is it possible the agent being the "field underwriter" has helped cause risks to get on the books or for better coverage than might have been the case in the past

honest question

 

[Policy Monkey]

I get your point. It's true that agents are considered "field underwriters", but I would argue that many (most?) agents are not well versed in construction techniques. So, unless the hazard is obvious like broken windows or holes in the roof, an agent at the home may not even know what they're looking at. I usually get my condition and update info from permit records and Wind Mitigation / 4 Point inspections.

 

[Girl Friday]

The e&o carriers in Georgia not the companies tell agents not to call someone if the payment is late or the policy is going to cancel. There have been many cases where a lawyer proved that an agent didn't call an insured because they were late but the agent had called other insureds and in each case if the agent doesn't call all insureds the courts ruled against the agent. So you either call all insureds or you will lose. It doesn't matter how large or how small your agency is or how many lines of coverage you provide.

This is how our agency is.