What to Know When Looking for Group Insurance Quotes
Thursday, September 8, 2011 |
posted by Lori Power |
“Insurance is so complicated, there are so many rules.”This is one of the first things potential clients say to me when working together on their group benefit plan. However, this doesn't need to be the case.
This perception typically comes on the heels of that client choosing one broker to work with to receive various insurance quotes from different insurance companies. They have usually, inadvertently, called at least two separate insurance brokers figuring the brokers are an insurance company. In the group benefit world, an insurance carrier (Manulife, Sun Life, Great-West Life, Standard Life, RBC Insurance, etc.) will release only one quote to one broker. In order for another broker to receive a quote on the same client, the original broker must, in essence, be fired from the case.
You see, an insurance broker is not bound by any one insurance company … they are their own company and they work for the client – always. An insurance agent, on the other hand, is bound to one insurance company and works for that company only. A client may deal with an agent of that company, but that agent will always be biased towards the insurance company that pays them. An example of this is Blue Cross. Brokers can place business with Blue Cross for their clients, but Blue Cross is one of the only remaining insurance companies in Canada who still have their own in-house agents and, when a client calls into Blue Cross for a quotation, they are assigned an agent. Once that agent is assigned, all brokers for that business are blocked.
As a benefit broker, when a client comes through our door, going to the marketplace to gather quotations is not the first item on the list, especially if that client already has a benefit plan in place. Instead we:
1. listen to the wants and needs of that group.
2. complete an analysis of the existing benefit plan to learn what is going with the plan that has caused the client to come our way.
3. develop and build a plan design that is going to work and be able to be modified for that client as they grow and change as a business.
4. Then and only then, will we canvas the marketplace for pricing on benefits. By that point, everyone is clear about the objectives they want to achieve with the benefit plan as an overall business solution.
Insurance CAN be complicated but it doesn’t have to be. At Quikcard, we like simple, straight forward solutions that work for our clients in helping them attain their benefit goals.
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