Professionals who use their station to commit fraud are in a class all their own. All too often their treachery is revealed, and lawsuits quickly follow. Should enough people be harmed by their actions, then class action suits are possible, and this can ruin anyone involved with insurance agent malpractice.
Such misuse of a career can take many forms, and often the victims do not know they have been had till years later. What occurs in most cases is related to simple green on the part of the agents, and a general ignorance on the part of their victims. Very few people can make sense of most any policy they sign up for, and in some cases they are simply trying to stay within the law.
When the ignorance of the insureds has been artfully exploited, the cases can be nearly impossible to prosecute or file suit. There is always a question of what the agents intended to communicate versus what their customer actually understood, and this grey area is easily exploited. The name of the game for many agents is to increase their profit margin, or keep their claim payout amounts at a minimum in order to obtain other perks from the companies they represent.
Probably the most straight-forward form of fraud is simply overcharging. These are fairly easy to sue over, and a decent attorney will take the steps necessary to find out if this overcharging has been a habit of the person in question. Usually the overcharging is found to have been done as a regular part of business, with the agents not realizing that they risked everything for their greed.
Probably the most insidious form of fraud is committed as an act of misrepresentation. A common example would be agents who fail create the impression that certain risks are covered, knowing full well that the particular policy the insured has purchased might not. These misrepresentations can be very difficult to pin down without the sales pitch having been recorded by the insured.
Many residents in hurricane-torn regions discovered this form of fraud when they thought they had bought coverage for the risk of hurricane damage. Many named peril policies were sold wherein wind damage was a named peril, but water damage was not. In such contracts, if the peril is not specifically named as being covered, then it is not.
Another method unscrupulous agents might use to get around paying out on their most common losses is to send a policy amendment weeks or months after selling the policy. This amendment might name a new coverage exclusion. If the insured fails to give this random piece of plain mail the right attention, they may find their policy was updated to not include the very coverage they most need.
While inconsistencies are supposed to benefit the insureds, it can take a great deal of time to even establish that an inconsistency exists. Few homeowners or small business entrepreneurs are able to get back on their own feet in a total loss scenario. Simply getting through the legal process can leave them in financial ruin until their lawsuit is a success.
Such misuse of a career can take many forms, and often the victims do not know they have been had till years later. What occurs in most cases is related to simple green on the part of the agents, and a general ignorance on the part of their victims. Very few people can make sense of most any policy they sign up for, and in some cases they are simply trying to stay within the law.
When the ignorance of the insureds has been artfully exploited, the cases can be nearly impossible to prosecute or file suit. There is always a question of what the agents intended to communicate versus what their customer actually understood, and this grey area is easily exploited. The name of the game for many agents is to increase their profit margin, or keep their claim payout amounts at a minimum in order to obtain other perks from the companies they represent.
Probably the most straight-forward form of fraud is simply overcharging. These are fairly easy to sue over, and a decent attorney will take the steps necessary to find out if this overcharging has been a habit of the person in question. Usually the overcharging is found to have been done as a regular part of business, with the agents not realizing that they risked everything for their greed.
Probably the most insidious form of fraud is committed as an act of misrepresentation. A common example would be agents who fail create the impression that certain risks are covered, knowing full well that the particular policy the insured has purchased might not. These misrepresentations can be very difficult to pin down without the sales pitch having been recorded by the insured.
Many residents in hurricane-torn regions discovered this form of fraud when they thought they had bought coverage for the risk of hurricane damage. Many named peril policies were sold wherein wind damage was a named peril, but water damage was not. In such contracts, if the peril is not specifically named as being covered, then it is not.
Another method unscrupulous agents might use to get around paying out on their most common losses is to send a policy amendment weeks or months after selling the policy. This amendment might name a new coverage exclusion. If the insured fails to give this random piece of plain mail the right attention, they may find their policy was updated to not include the very coverage they most need.
While inconsistencies are supposed to benefit the insureds, it can take a great deal of time to even establish that an inconsistency exists. Few homeowners or small business entrepreneurs are able to get back on their own feet in a total loss scenario. Simply getting through the legal process can leave them in financial ruin until their lawsuit is a success.
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