Best Method For Underwriting Interview

[Vision]

After the quote has been submitted, what is the best method for the client to talk to the company?

As someone with no experience it seems like a telephone call to the company beats filling out something online.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Exact opposite. At all costs you want to avoid having your client talking to underwriters - or even worse, paid employees who are not underwriters but just collect health information. They are paid salary and have no vested interest in the deal going through and are trained to kill applications. Depending on the person they can be rude or very short with clients who don't know even minute detail of their health.

If you're going over health history and they don't know the name or dosage of medication you're of course very polite. If you catch someone is a bad mood it's "Well if you don't have all the details sir we can't continue. Just call back later when you have everything you need!" There goes that app.

When any of my clients have to call the company I prep them for about 5 minutes before they call. I'm not prepping them to not disclose medical information but I'm getting them out of traps set for them.

 

[Vision]

Thanks, what traps do they set? Basically a client needs to know the dates and names of everything?

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

They'll ask stuff like if the medication they're on is going to change or even the dosage. Clients say "I dunno. If I see my doctor and he increases it then he increase it." Dead app.

I have to ball park a lot of dates. A client might tell me he's been in HBP meds for "4 or 5 years" and now we just have to take our best guess and I try to narrow it down the best we can. That ain't happening over the phone - if the client doesn't know the dates they'll have to call back.

I take all the frustration out of it and when I'm doing an app I'm glued to Google. I often have to search hospitals and doctors. People move and you get "I saw a doctor in Atlanta 3 years ago" but they don't remember the address.

Basically, I'm patient and that doesn't happen if they're on the phone with the company.

 

[somarco]

I don't have a problem with phone interviews. Actually prefer it over paramed exams & APS (like the one going on now for a Time app). I prep my clients for the interview and tell them to take control.

I give them the number to call, tell them to call when THEY are ready. If the carrier calls them first they are to beg off and ask to call back.

They need to have the app in front of them before talking to underwriting. Of course we have reviewed everything first so they know what answers were given & why they were worded that way.

They are told to treat this like a Perry Mason drill.

If they don't know who Perry Mason is then we have a side bar.

They are to listen to each question carefully before answering. If they are unsure of the question, ask the person to restate in a different way.

They are not to volunteer any new information or speculate on an answer.

I tell them the interview will be recorded and the person conducting the interview will try to put the fear of God in them.

This is no sweat. They are to be truthful in the interview just like we were on the app.

We go over the app one more time & I ask if there are any surprises they have not told me about. The underwriter really doesn't care if you had your tonsils out at age 6. What they do care about is the specific time frame for the question at hand.

I have only had one app go bad like this. It was a guy who told me he had back problems but never said he had a ruptured disk. He was turned down so we had to go to another carrier.

If you are a good coach you wont have problems with phone interviews.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Exactly, I treat it like I'm a defense attorney and I'm preparing them for the cross.

This has nothing to do with being truthful, it's just not being stupid:

Question: "So you're on high blood pressure medication, what were your last readings Mrs. Smith:"

Correct: "125/85"

Incorrect: "Heck...what were they again? I think something like 120 something. Maybe 130? I don't know. The doctor has me on this diet but I can't stick to it. I just know I'm gonna gain more weight but at least I can increase the dosage or something. I don't know if this crap he has me on is working anyway."

 

[Guest]

Exactly, I treat it like I'm a defense attorney and I'm preparing them for the cross.

This has nothing to do with being truthful, it's just not being stupid:

I used to do something similar when I used to sell. I'd tell the client to treat it like an IRS audit, i.e. have all of your information handy, tell the truth, but NEVER offer more info than what they ask.

Had an older client (early 70's) one time who was in perfect health -- and proud of it -- applying for long-term care insurance. During his phone interview, just as it was about to wrap up, he told them, beaming with pride and without being asked, that he even had a sigmoidoscopy done a couple of years before -- at his own request -- and it came out perfect. Well...the ins company then wanted the results of that test, which was done sort of informally at Johns Hopkins and not by his regular doc, and it took several weeks to find (he was retired military). In the meantime, the client got all upset that the underwriting was taking so long...thought maybe they found something wrong. Taught me a good lesson.