Friday, August 29, 2008

Churning a policy

Some unethical insurance agents engage in "churning" their policies. They approach their existing clients and tell them that a new and better policy has been introduced. They advise the client to terminate an old policy and take up the a new policy.

The client is not aware that this is to his disadvantage. By taking up the new policy, the client has to incur the upfront charges once again. About two years of the premium is taken away in these charges.

Some insurance agents churn the policies every five years. A client may be churned several times during their working life. The client does not realise that the premiums that they have saved over the years is used up in paying commission to the clients. The client gets a poor or negative return on the savings over the years.

1 comment:

  1. I wonder the readers find boring always reading about churning and the unethicalness of insurance agents?
    On the other hand if we relent we will be sending a wrong message to both consumers and the insurance agents .And the harmful message is that the coast is now clear.It is safe for consumers to buy and safe for insurance agents to resume their unethical practice.
    We mustn't relent but to continue to drive home and expose the malpractices of insurance agents, to familiarise the consumers of the
    unscrupulous agents' modus operandi
    like churning, twisting ,deception and other of their disguised scams.
    I hope after reading the readers will recognise a scam when they meet one. The readers will be more cautious and discerning when dealing with insurance agents no matter what titles they use. Consumers must treat every insurance agent a suspect. This is the best and safe way to start the relationship.

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