Has anyone had experience with a life company called Royal Neighbors. I recently contracted with them and today I sent an app to them.
For probably the past 5 years all my life apps were e-mailed in and the signature pages would follow through the regular mail. Royal Neighbors said they won't take e-mail but want it faxed to them. When I faxed the app their fax machine would only handshake at 9600. Most all fax machines I send to (especially at a company that receives high volume) receive at 14,400. It took 24 minutes for them to receive 13 pages. I kept picturing an insurance company being run out of someone's garage on a budget that can't afford a good fax machine.
There are times when I have 2 or 3 life apps to send to a company at the same time. With such a slow fax machine, this royal neighbors company would be a nightmare to send 40 pages of apps.
Anybody have experience with their life insurance?
Has anyone had experience with a life company called Royal Neighbors. I recently contracted with them and today I sent an app to them.
For probably the past 5 years all my life apps were e-mailed in and the signature pages would follow through the regular mail. Royal Neighbors said they won't take e-mail but want it faxed to them. When I faxed the app their fax machine would only handshake at 9600. Most all fax machines I send to (especially at a company that receives high volume) receive at 14,400. It took 24 minutes for them to receive 13 pages. I kept picturing an insurance company being run out of someone's garage on a budget that can't afford a good fax machine.
There are times when I have 2 or 3 life apps to send to a company at the same time. With such a slow fax machine, this royal neighbors company would be a nightmare to send 40 pages of apps.
Anybody have experience with their life insurance?
Travis (Hoosier Daddy) does a lot of business with them and speaks very highly of them. Never heard any complaints like that.
Could have been a phone line problem, their fax being out of paper etc.
I seriously doubt that given how cheap fax machines are, that any company, garage based or not, would run at 9600
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Make sure that brain is in gear before operating mouth
Could have been a phone line problem, their fax being out of paper etc.
I seriously doubt that given how cheap fax machines are, that any company, garage based or not, would run at 9600
...or even use an actual fax machine anymore for recieving faxes. Now they can recieve them online and eliminate the scanning of paper.
I think even the Flintstones had Ring Central in their last season.
Well I faxed to their Austin TX line and got 9600. Then I called their Illinois office and they said to fax to them. Again 9600.
I thought it may be my fax machine so I faxed to someone I know. It went out at 14,400.
I run a one man operation, just me. I do life, health and P&C. To do all this effectively I've created automated processes. Processes like taking apps and making them form fillable on my computer. My Contact Manager program is invaluable in setting alarms for to-do's etc. A client needs a certificate of insurance, I complete the form on my computer, it's formatted into a PDF file and e-mailed to them. An life insurance company has questions, they e-mail me and I respond through e-mail, a record is kept on my Contact Manager.
This faxing crap makes it harder to track the progress. Unlike e-mail with faxing there isn't any request receipt button. Each month more and more P&C companies are sending me e-policies for my records. Yea! No more bulky 30 page policy copies arrive in the mail. They are archived to a seperate hard drive.
This company seems to be working in the dark ages. Not sure if they will fit into my working arragment.
Originally Posted by Expat
Could have been a phone line problem, their fax being out of paper etc.
I seriously doubt that given how cheap fax machines are, that any company, garage based or not, would run at 9600
Didn't know that. I am even contracted with them. Are you jerkin my chain Rick?
While that is definitely a reasonable question, I am serious. You need to download some software and set things up with AA, but it's not hard to do.
Haven't used them in a couple of years so maybe the program has been updated. But when I was writing all you did was scan the documents using their software and send.
Read my post I said e-mailed for the past 5 years,,NOT faxed.
What you can do is ask them to join the 21st Century and accept e-mailed apps.
Yea I'm blasting them...I blast all insurance companies when they set up bad protocols.
Before the past 5 year period of e-mailing apps they were faxed.
Maybe it was just that day because it does seem strange that IL and TX both had slow rates.
S happens that we all know. If a faxed app gets misplaced who do you call? At least with an e-mail you know who it was sent to. With a fax anyone can pick it up, misplace it and you have nobody to blame. Talk about the opposite of faxing apps, heck West coast life has an on-line application process (guess they still do).
I've been doing this for over 25 years and I have found insurance companies are terrible when it comes to embracing new technology. Everyone was using Windows and insurance companies were still sending quoting software in DOS. Why haven't more insurance companies made their applications fillable PDF's (some do but they all should)? Insurance companies websites are more times than not IE dependent and not written to WC3 standards.
So over the years I've witnessed the backward thinking of insurance companies and I am always trying to get them to move forward. Nothing pesonal toward RNA, they look like a fine company.
You ask about the previous company. It wasn't one...it was many. Most of the time I use different brokerages.
Originally Posted by HoosierDaddy
Wow, your 4th post and you are Blasting RNA over their Fax machine... You mentioned for 5 years your life applications where faxed with sig papers to follow in the mail... Why did you stop using that company. What made you contract with RNA? Who did you go through for your contract.
I write 8-10 apps with Royal Neighbors a week. I have never had the first problem with the fax, or have I heard this from anyone else. I have some contacts in the UPPER MANAGEMENT of RNA, and I would be glad to make some phone calls on your behalf. PM me your name and I will make the call on MONDAY and address these issues.
8-10 a week? impressive. I live in austin TX, I could drive them over there if I wrote them. { how do you do 8-10 a week? I guess you work hard and get leads, and referrals, that's how!! ha ha }
I still deal with a company in Tyler TX where if {and when} I write an app, I put it in an envelope, stamp it, and mail that puppy on up to Tyler. I photo copy the app first.
Read my post I said e-mailed for the past 5 years,,NOT faxed.
What you can do is ask them to join the 21st Century and accept e-mailed apps.
Yea I'm blasting them...I blast all insurance companies when they set up bad protocols.
Before the past 5 year period of e-mailing apps they were faxed.
Maybe it was just that day because it does seem strange that IL and TX both had slow rates.
S happens that we all know. If a faxed app gets misplaced who do you call? At least with an e-mail you know who it was sent to. With a fax anyone can pick it up, misplace it and you have nobody to blame. Talk about the opposite of faxing apps, heck West coast life has an on-line application process (guess they still do).
I've been doing this for over 25 years and I have found insurance companies are terrible when it comes to embracing new technology. Everyone was using Windows and insurance companies were still sending quoting software in DOS. Why haven't more insurance companies made their applications fillable PDF's (some do but they all should)? Insurance companies websites are more times than not IE dependent and not written to WC3 standards.
So over the years I've witnessed the backward thinking of insurance companies and I am always trying to get them to move forward. Nothing pesonal toward RNA, they look like a fine company.
You ask about the previous company. It wasn't one...it was many. Most of the time I use different brokerages.
Blue Cross will not accept applications by e-mail. They say that it is not secure enough, I guess people can hack into your e-mail. [Al3 is this so?] Anyway they require that all applications are mailed or faxed. Touch wood, nothing has been misplaced so far.
It would be nice if they had an encrypted email system for agents, but it's Blue Cross and they have a pretty rigid sytem in place.
That is a very lame excuse but predictable from the Blues. Where exactly do the apps we write reside? On our computers. Hey guess what, computers can be hacked, ask the Pentagon (The Chinese government hacked a noncritical Defense Department computer system in June, a Pentagon source told FOX News on Tuesday.)
I think for companies that don't allow e-mailed apps the real reason is the e-mail retention rules. It is easier to keep the status quo (paper apps) than it is to set up a system to deal with the Data Protection Act.
If I could (no chance here) of talking to the powers that be, I would ask them:
"What is the difference between a fax sent to the wrong number and a hacked e-mail? Which do you think has the greater chance of happening?"
I was into the computer thing as soon as possible. My fist one was a Commodore...hard to think of it as a computer. Anyhow, since that time I have never been hacked for anything! Ask how many mis-dialed phone calls or mis-sent faxes I've had over the past 25 years.
It continues to prove to me that the eggheads that are in charge don't really think very well. From the Enron's, the tech stock bubble, to the current Sub-prime debacle all of it was caused by "the best and the brightest."
So we keep fighting to make the eggheads think logically and have some common sense.
From 1985 to 2000 I also held a Series 7 license. E-mails were a very big deal to the NASD. In fact (if memory serves me) at first the NASD wasn't allowing e-mails to clients. I always found it very funny how the NASD tried to micro manage the small things, things that didn't matter much. They wanted all client letters kept at my office and a copy at my broker dealer office. But on the other hand they gave a wink and a nod to the derivatives market and the mortgage loan securitization.
Originally Posted by Expat
Blue Cross will not accept applications by e-mail. They say that it is not secure enough, I guess people can hack into your e-mail. [Al3 is this so?] Anyway they require that all applications are mailed or faxed. Touch wood, nothing has been misplaced so far.
It would be nice if they had an encrypted email system for agents, but it's Blue Cross and they have a pretty rigid sytem in place.
This has been an interesting thread. It is a clear example of the mindset of agents.
On the one hand, we have agents that will hit their production come hell or high water. Problems or perceived problems do not deter them. They find a workaround. They make no excuses.
On the other hand, there are those agents who have an excuse and blame everything and everyone for their shortcomings.
I believe we all know agents that belong to either camp. The question for us, as agents, is, "Which camp do you want to belong to"?
If you find that your business or your income is not what you would like it to be, then maybe you need to switch camps.
Maybe I screwed up on my last post. I should not have said hack into email. Listening to Blue Cross I gathered that it is possible to Intercept an email, but not possible with a fax.
Either way I don't have enough technical knowledge to know if this is true.
(That is why I was asking AL3) I did ask them if I could purchase an encrypted email system, and give them a password but they said no. So fax it is.
As you pointed out, an email goes directly to someone, whereas a fax is probably handled by numerous people, therefore email would seem by far the best and most direct way. But what do I know.
This thread has nothing to do about meeting your numbers. This thread was about the administration of insurance applications and insurance business. It was about how insurance companies are their own worst enemy when it comes to streamlining the process of placing and servicing applications. It is about questioning why are they (insurance companies) so apt to add arcane administration processes, on the selling
Way back in 1999 even the stodgy NASD changed its mind on e-mail, "After a series of rule changes, broker e-mail is legal--at least in theory. But the rules are a bit complicated. E-mail hasn't been around that long yet its importance cannot be overstated. As more brokerages stretch to allow such communications, it's best to stay on top of your firm's particular procedures."
If an insurance company has good rates, they are easy to work with, etc. we will jump through their hoops. That doesn't mean we don't question the validity or reasoning for those hoops. Often if enough people point out problems these large corporate bodies will change and that is what this thread was about.
Originally Posted by Zydo
This has been an interesting thread. It is a clear example of the mindset of agents.
On the one hand, we have agents that will hit their production come hell or high water. Problems or perceived problems do not deter them. They find a workaround. They make no excuses.
On the other hand, there are those agents who have an excuse and blame everything and everyone for their shortcomings.
I believe we all know agents that belong to either camp. The question for us, as agents, is, "Which camp do you want to belong to"?
If you find that your business or your income is not what you would like it to be, then maybe you need to switch camps.
You know enough and e-mail is seen by less eyes. SO you are starting to see the fuzzy logic they use to prohibit e-mails.
All that hard copy paperwork sitting about is clearly more open than an e-mail to the underwriter.
Originally Posted by Expat
Maybe I screwed up on my last post. I should not have said hack into email. Listening to Blue Cross I gathered that it is possible to Intercept an email, but not possible with a fax.
Either way I don't have enough technical knowledge to know if this is true.
(That is why I was asking AL3) I did ask them if I could purchase an encrypted email system, and give them a password but they said no. So fax it is.
As you pointed out, an email goes directly to someone, whereas a fax is probably handled by numerous people, therefore email would seem by far the best and most direct way. But what do I know.
Just scan them into to your computer (for your copy) and mail out the hard copy. Not that difficult, unless you are one of those agents that live paycheck to paycheck and need the money now. Then you can go on their agent website and track the status, take 7 minutes max to check my apps, and I guarantee I write a helluva lot more than you.
Royal neighbors experience
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