Quick UNUM Question

[yankee466]

Looking at a UNUM Income III Choice NC individual LTD quote that my potential client is sitting on. Occupation class on the quote says D1, she is a dental hygienist. The quote seems very attractive, surprisingly so as a matter of fact.......and I did not think this was a prime market for UNUM, especially if they are same rates as Assurity....although its hard to get a to age 65, full own occ for a hygienist with carriers other than Assurity.

Anyone know if UNUM Occupation Class D1 is correct for a hygienist? Principal apparently hates hygienists by comparison as a 2A. Assurity makes them a 3A and gives decent rates.....but you can debate features, functions, and AM Best ratings all day long on these things

No UNUM experience, so any comments or jabs appreciated. I have historically served the Blue/gray market for LTD.....so not into details of Guardian, Standard, etc......

When I start by googling UNUM and disability....I mainly seems to get adds for lawyers handling DI lawsuits against UNUM. Doesn't seem to bode well.

Thanks

 

[HomeService]

I wonder if she is experienced or of a certain age, or has a certain college accreditation or something. I wonder if maybe they take her time and experience and bump her up into a better class or something. I wonder if a newbie would be rated up higher or something, who knows. I'm taking shots in the dark. I used to write it with Mutual of Omaha, years ago, not UNUM.

 

[Arthur Rudnick]

When I start by googling UNUM and disability....I mainly seems to get adds for lawyers handling DI lawsuits against UNUM. Doesn't seem to bode well.

About 10 years ago, there was a tremendous amount of negative publicity about UNUM. There were segments on national TV with interviews with Claims Managers saying that the mindset of the company was to do whatever was possible to deny a DI claim. Hence, the lawsuits.

They cleaned up their act and I believe that today, they are the #1 DI carrier in the country. At one point, they owned about 75% of the DI Market.

 

[BNTRS]

The simplest way to answer this is to get the underwriting field manual and look up the occ class. Every DI carrier has one, and you can look up occupations by list.

As for other carriers, Guardian hates hygienists. The Standard I don't actually know off the top of my head, but I would assume this would be the case as they are a White collar top end DI carrier for the most part.

Ohio National will write them, modified own occ only (no pure own occ on hygienists).

There are two reasons for the litigation web sites:

1. UNUM is the largest DI carrier in the country (with a lot of group business). If you look up other larger group carriers (Lincoln, Illinois Mutual, Guardian, Met Life, etc.) you'll find similar web sites. Simply attorneys' fishing for business.

2. Like Arthur pointed out, UNUM was caught up in a nasty exposé a number of years ago concerning their practice to deny basically all claims submitted as a way to minimize claims experience. They've gotten over that, and do have decent products. Their comdex is still somewhat troubling, FYI.

 

[yankee466]

The simplest way to answer this is to get the underwriting field manual and look up the occ class. Every DI carrier has one, and you can look up occupations by list.

As for other carriers, Guardian hates hygienists. The Standard I don't actually know off the top of my head, but I would assume this would be the case as they are a White collar top end DI carrier for the most part.

Ohio National will write them, modified own occ only (no pure own occ on hygienists).

There are two reasons for the litigation web sites:

1. UNUM is the largest DI carrier in the country (with a lot of group business). If you look up other larger group carriers (Lincoln, Illinois Mutual, Guardian, Met Life, etc.) you'll find similar web sites. Simply attorneys' fishing for business.

2. Like Arthur pointed out, UNUM was caught up in a nasty exposé a number of years ago concerning their practice to deny basically all claims submitted as a way to minimize claims experience. They've gotten over that, and do have decent products. Their comdex is still somewhat troubling, FYI.

Thanks....if I was appointed with UNUM, it would be the first thing I would look up. I was hoping that someone on this board wrote for UNUM and could do that for me.