So, a few weeks ago I met with the widow of a client to complete the paperwork for filing a death claim. Complicating things was the fact that he died during the contestability period, which meant added scrutiny.
We quickly hit a bottleneck in the form of Matt's urologist, whose assistant wasn't particularly helpful, and so Amy asked me for help. Time was, I could easily make the phone call, but because of various privacy laws, doc's won't even acknowledge to me that a given person is even a patient. Still I offered to try, on the theory that perhaps Matt's privacy concerns died with him.
I never did hear back from the doc, but Amy called me a couple of days later to thank me; he'd completed and returned the form within a day of my call.
Heh.
About a week later, I received the check and let Amy know that it had arrived. And here's one of the two points I'd like to make:
It's still surprising to me that the current default in these circumstances is for the carrier to send the check directly to the beneficiary, and that this is at the agents' request. Unless said beneficiary is a plane-ride away, I just don't 'get' it: this is the most important part of the entire life insurance transaction. I made a promise to Matt that I would be there for Amy; how do I honor that promise by having the anonymous corporation entrust that check to Cliff Clavin for delivery (and maybe some practical advice)?
Which brings me to the second (albeit seriously intertwined) point: seeing the smile of gratitude on Amy's face reinforced just how important, and valuable, my job really is. I can stand tall knowing that I've helped to make it possible for her to continue her current standard of living for (at least) the foreseeable future.
What could possibly be better than that?
We quickly hit a bottleneck in the form of Matt's urologist, whose assistant wasn't particularly helpful, and so Amy asked me for help. Time was, I could easily make the phone call, but because of various privacy laws, doc's won't even acknowledge to me that a given person is even a patient. Still I offered to try, on the theory that perhaps Matt's privacy concerns died with him.
I never did hear back from the doc, but Amy called me a couple of days later to thank me; he'd completed and returned the form within a day of my call.
Heh.
About a week later, I received the check and let Amy know that it had arrived. And here's one of the two points I'd like to make:
It's still surprising to me that the current default in these circumstances is for the carrier to send the check directly to the beneficiary, and that this is at the agents' request. Unless said beneficiary is a plane-ride away, I just don't 'get' it: this is the most important part of the entire life insurance transaction. I made a promise to Matt that I would be there for Amy; how do I honor that promise by having the anonymous corporation entrust that check to Cliff Clavin for delivery (and maybe some practical advice)?
Which brings me to the second (albeit seriously intertwined) point: seeing the smile of gratitude on Amy's face reinforced just how important, and valuable, my job really is. I can stand tall knowing that I've helped to make it possible for her to continue her current standard of living for (at least) the foreseeable future.
What could possibly be better than that?
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