Oxford Life? Who, What...

[TampaHound]

My email in-box has been getting pounded by Oxford Life recently. Which to me is generally a warning sign but since you ladies and gents are much more knowable and wiser than I am.

What can you tell me about them other than what is on the website? For example I know they do Medicare and FE, their at 120% for the first year, etc. Anyone write with them and if so, what do you think?

More curious than anything right now.

 

[jdeasy]

My email in-box has been getting pounded by Oxford Life recently. Which to me is generally a warning sign but since you ladies and gents are much more knowable and wiser than I am.

What can you tell me about them other than what is on the website? For example I know they do Medicare and FE, their at 120% for the first year, etc. Anyone write with them and if so, what do you think?

More curious than anything right now.

They have decent rates. Very difficult to deal with. Renewals are not so great. And they don't pay on the policy fee so that 120% is a little misleading.

They decline if the person has been declined or rated by another insurance company. Even if the person fits all of their underwriting and the person was declined for an FU or something it doesn't matter Oxford lets the other company determine their underwriting answer to decline. But they will not automatically approve if another company has approved them. So they only use the other company to decline.

They will ask the applicant if they gave the agent money on the phone interview. It comes across very accusatory but they claim they are protecting the agents by asking that. How nice!!

Some agents like doing business with them. Most seem to not.

They have some sort of unwritten rule about the percentage of replacement business they will accept. I know many agents that have gotten a call from them saying their percentage of replacements is too high and they need to get that number in order.

Getting them on the phone for customer service is about like dealing with MoO. Be prepared to wait.

 

[SammyJ]

Slac also asks the client if they gave the agent money

 

[goillini52]

My email in-box has been getting pounded by Oxford Life recently. Which to me is generally a warning sign but since you ladies and gents are much more knowable and wiser than I am.

What can you tell me about them other than what is on the website? For example I know they do Medicare and FE, their at 120% for the first year, etc. Anyone write with them and if so, what do you think?

More curious than anything right now.

What JD said. Their underwriting is very inconsistent. Good rates on FE, and recently raised their Med Supp rates to where they're no longer competitive. I took them out of my bag a while back because they're just a complete PITA company to work with! They also have annuities...I just put those back in my bag.

 

[Newby]

My email in-box has been getting pounded by Oxford Life recently. Which to me is generally a warning sign but since you ladies and gents are much more knowable and wiser than I am.

What can you tell me about them other than what is on the website? For example I know they do Medicare and FE, their at 120% for the first year, etc. Anyone write with them and if so, what do you think?

More curious than anything right now.

Our agency writes a pretty large amount with Oxford every month. But I have to admit they are a love them or hate them company. They can't seem to get past a few little oddities like the decline if any other company has declined them previously issue.

First the bad stuff:
1. They use the undisputed worst phone interview company. If they just fired those guys and went anywhere else they would get much more business.

2. If you write an applicant that has ever in their lifetime had an Oxford policy and lapsed it they will not pay you a commission.

3. Renewals are very low. And doesn't pay on policy fees.

4. Approved preferred or nothing. No in between with this one.

Now the good:
1. Really competitive rates and fairly aggressive underwriting. Good with diabetics on insulin. Two year look back on major stuff. You can get some cases approved here that would only be approved at higher premiums elsewhere. POS approvals.

2. First year commissions were high for the last several years (120%). They have recently lowered their street commission to 110% but since they are known for their 120 it's still easy to find.

3. Excellent single premium product with true FE underwriting and pos approvals. (Rare on single premium products. )

4. Very usable and easy to understand as well as present annuities. These are FE agent friendly annuities as far as not overly complicated. But they have $20,000 minimums so not good for small cases. (Shouldn't waste your time on smaller cases anyway. )

5. excellent that they have the Christian Fidelity option. Lower rates when needed for lower commissions.

Like most FE companies, this one with a few tweaks could be great. But we can't quite get them to make those tweaks. Still a good usable company for many agents obviously.

 

[WinoBlues]

I finally let them go this last year. I would write 1case a year just to keep my contract active for servicing purposes. Still have about 50 cases there. Had them for many years.

Almost useless website, worse than TA on service, agents can not call in to handle client request, seems like every form needs to be notarized. Has or had some of the rudest CSRs.

The worse and slowest company I have ever dealt with on non contestable claims.

That is the good, I don't want to be negative so won't post the bad.

 

[NSRH]

Im seeing more and more companies cut, or even not pay, commissions on customers who have lapsed or terminated at anytime in the past with the same carrier.

I guess I understand the concept from the carriers point of view. But its a very one sided decision. With the turnover this industry has (agents and customers), its not rare for customers to be rewritten a couple times in their life. The problem is you place the business then find out later they had a policy that lapsed years ago, from an agent probably not even licensed anymore, in some cases.

Maybe paying those commissions on an as earned basis would be a compromise.

 

[jdeasy]

Im seeing more and more companies cut, or even not pay, commissions on customers who have lapsed or terminated at anytime in the past with the same carrier.

I guess I understand the concept from the carriers point of view. But its a very one sided decision. With the turnover this industry has (agents and customers), its not rare for customers to be rewritten a couple times in their life. The problem is you place the business then find out later they had a policy that lapsed years ago, from an agent probably not even licensed anymore, in some cases.

Maybe paying those commissions on an as earned basis would be a compromise.

What companies are you seeing make this change? Americo and Trans have always been anal about that. Not new. Foresters is almost as anal as those 2 but they have always been.

Who are you seeing join in on that?

 

[NSRH]

What companies are you seeing make this change? Americo and Trans have always been anal about that. Not new. Foresters is almost as anal as those 2 but they have always been.

Who are you seeing join in on that?

I guess Ive been doing this for too long, but when I first started 10+ years ago, no one was cutting commissions for this stuff. Transamerica is what came to my mind first, but I honestly dont remember when that change took effect.

I've never represented Oxford so this is news to me, and Ive never experienced a commission cut with Foresters, YET!

 

[jdeasy]

I guess Ive been doing this for too long, but when I first started 10+ years ago, no one was cutting commissions for this stuff. Transamerica is what came to my mind first, but I honestly dont remember when that change took effect.

I've never represented Oxford so this is news to me, and Ive never experienced a commission cut with Foresters, YET!

Transamerica/monumental has been that way for more than 10 years. As has Foresters. Actually Foresters is better now than it used to be. It's 13 months now. It was 24 months for many years.

And Foresters used to 100% charge back any terminations in the first 6 months. lapse, death, etc. If the insured didn't keep it 6 months the agent was charged back 100%. They don't do that now. So that's better.

Oxford says this has always been their rule. But they make up rules on the fly and don't inform the agents until you violate that unknown rule so they may not be truthful on saying it's always been that way?