I was speaking with one of my clients recently who shared with me that I seem to always report “bad news.” “It was quite frightening”, she said,” learning about all the bad things insurers are now doing.”
From the perspective of insureds, I’m sure hearing all about the insurance industry, and it’s bad faith can be frightening.” But, in the long run, NOT knowing, is a lot worse.
I would like to take a moment and explain my rationale for communicating the truth about what can happen to unfairly deny disability claims. To do that I have to explain a little bit of the history of UNUMProvident, which I’m sure was used as an example by many other insurers. I’ll give you the short version, I promise.
Two decades ago, disability insurers were operating without a great deal of constraint. When it was discovered that Harold Chandler(Provident and Paul Revere), and his henchmen (1999) were universally engaging in bad faith, the whole system went crazy with disinformation, particularly the Internet. Insureds were posting so much information a man by the name of Jim Mooney started an online newsletter to help straighten it all out. I had a column called “Inside UNUMProvident” where I shared as much information about the claims process as possible.
Anxious to make money, and lot’s of it, attorneys took on cases they knew absolutely nothing about, furthering the disinformation. It became commonplace to tell insureds “exactly what they wanted to hear” in order to make money on the volumes of claims that were denied.
It was a mess, to be sure. Those who fought the system like Judy Morrison, Jim Mooney, and law firms such as Andersen, Kill and Slick (NYC) were pegged by the opposition as traitors to the industry. Judy, by the way, was an insured whose claim was denied by Unum. She went to court pro se and won. Later, she killed herself, likely a result of her medical condition of bipolar disorder.
Years later when I started DCS, Inc.I wrote the company philosophy as “imparting information to insureds and claimants equal to that of the insurance companies targeting their claims.” It was only fair that insureds should be knowledgeable about what was going on. Although many thousands of insureds, over two decades, have benefitted from having better information, including their attorneys, the message has not been universally well received.
A minority of insureds do not want to know “bad news.” As the messenger, I am “dropped like a hot potato” as the bearer of bad news. In years past I’ve often recommended to insureds that they write out a family Plan B; but, stopped writing the articles when I was criticized for it. Even today, I wonder how many insureds have a Plan B for added income when benefits end at age 65-67.
My opinion has always been that when it comes to managing disability claims, “knowledge is power”. If WE know what the insurance companies are doing, WE also know what to DO ABOUT IT. I have never subscribed to the notion that I should tell insureds “what they want to hear.” I had a client a few years ago who walked away because “I wasn’t giving her the nice, kind, friendly, positive opinions” that she expected. I have found that people call me because they know they will get the “straight story”, and on that I’ve built my reputation. Likewise, there have been a small number of people who hired me to do what they tell me do, and for those of you who actually know me, understand that didn’t work out well at all.
While I understand that there are some people who have anxiety when I speak the truth about disability claims, there are far more people who benefit from knowing what could happen, and what we’re going to do about it.
Finally, thinking rationally, there is often too much money involved with disability claims to ever “tell insureds what they want to hear”, and I will never do that. Good or bad, insureds and readers will always hear the truth about the process from me. I don’t try to sugar coat the message, but I can suggest solutions to any claim crisis that may come up. And, that’s the truth.
