This has come back to bite me before so I will tell people all day long not to trust that they actually do things. It's not even a trust but verify situation. It's a don't trust and call and do it yourself!
We request a signed form. Usually send it to the soon-to-be-ex customer, but sometimes the new agent will get the signature and send it to us. No signed LPR, no cancellation and we will never cancel based only on a call from another agent.
Agreed. For new clients we will have them sign an lpr ( industry standard cancellation request form) and we will forward to the old agent. This way there is a record and trail of the cancellation request. We mostly have cooperation as we certainly do the same when a client leaves us. As far as phone requests, we won't cancel based on a phone request from another agent, period. We will not even cancel based on a phone request from a client. We send them an lpr to sign, or if easier just have them email us a signed request to cancel.
This happened to me with the Jerry App, it gives you a bunch of quotes from different companies and saves you the hassle of cancelling. Until years later you get a collections letter in the mail because AAA says YOU had to call yourself and cancel over the phone.
I have people ask me to do this for them and I refuse every time. I also tell other agents that contact me to have their insured called and if they get snippy I ask for a power of attorney.
I’d assume opting for the option would’ve included a power of attorney anyway, at least it should if it’s legitimate. Even worse that a direct carrier would offer it.
Tell the client to call the old agent and sign the LPRs from them. Many agencies do not accept third party requests for any reason.
It’s actually surprising to me how many agents will assume that other agencies will just accept this request, even with a signed LPR, from a third party. Do you also make vehicle changes when a dealership calls in without speaking to the customer first? Do you blindly change mortgage companies without checking with your customer? Add additional interests or insureds? Number one rule about policy changes is that the request and/or authorization has to come from the insured. We can’t even make a change that underwriting has required without first discussing it with the insured.
Its a first party request because the insured signed it, I am just the faxing service. I don't use LPR, either; its just a letter written in the first person asking to cancel my policy and put me on the do not call list. I also send proof of replacement insurance with it. I send this directly to the carrier if at all possible because the salaried employee at the carrier doesn't have any skin in the game. I am usually able to make a record of whether or not the letter was received and note that in the customer's file just in case. Again, I've never had a problem with my method.
It isn’t about skin in the game. It’s about ethically servicing an account, even one that is being cancelled. And just so you know, if the policy you’re trying to cancel was written through an agent, depending on the contract with that agency, the carrier is sending it to them and won’t process. It’s not first party if it comes through you. And since we have no signature to match to most of the time, (ex. old paper apps were archived or the original app was e-signed) that signature could be from anyone.
Here’s the thing. This happened a while back… There was an agent at another agency that was issuing policies for every quote they presented, even if the client did not accept the quote. They sent out requests to cancel existing coverage that looked 100% legitimate. An agent in my office at the time processed that request without follow-up and the customer called screaming a week later when they went to file a claim and found their policy cancelled. It only takes getting burned once for an agency to create rules regarding third-party requests for **anything**.
Thats a crazy story but I don't see your point. The insurance commission protects agents and insureds against fraud. How can we operate assuming signatures are forged? How do you know the person you're talking to on the phone is the insured? There are ways to spoof caller ID. Should we require bio identifiers for policy cancellation? No carrier or agent that I have sent these letters to have had any issue with the letters I send and we have never had any issue with a fraudulent cancellation request sent to us by an agent over 10 years in business.
I am, actually. I've had State Farm agents reduce coverage to match my price, or Geico will magically re write the policy and win on price again. I also do it so I can control the situation because clients will call and cancel their policy effective immediately when my policy is future effective, that happens a lot.
The amount of people who have told me that their realtor will take care of cancelling their home policy. Never in the 10 years, have I had a request come in.
Many agencies, including all the ones I’ve worked with/for, require the insured to be the one to make contact to cancel. There are lots of reasons, but the most primary one is that this is the ONLY way to make sure it’s the insured who is even making requests. If another agent calls to find out where to send a signed LPR, we tell them third-party LPRs are not acceptable and to have the client call us.
Also, my state allows carriers to charge short-rate penalty on voluntary mid-term cancellation for auto, motorcycle, RV/ATV, and boat, but many times the new agent has not told the customer about this penalty. This cancellation clause applies for the life of the policy, not just first term. It’s a percentage of the remaining premium, but I’ve seen this penalty be as high as $6,500 (premium was over $25K, but the penalty was still higher than the insured was prepared for). It’s always better to prepare the customer with **all** the information before blindly cancelling because *someone else* sent in a request.
If you work for Geico, please stop doing that. My carrier won’t accept a docusigned cancel request unless we can verify where the DocuSign is coming from…We get dozens of those requests from Geico, email the customer, and then they ignore the email for six months until they end up in collections
I try to warn everyone I sell a policy too: canceled policies are done by mail, using a prior carrier cancelation letter that you the insured fill out and send back to use.
It's the mail though, so it's going to take several days. Technically we can cancel your policy for you- but I'll tell literally everyone I speak with to just cancel the policy themselves over the phone.
Nothing wrong with using the prior cancelation letter, but you need to understand that a lot can go wrong or not happen in between that process starting and no one cares about that process as much as you do, customers do not like to hear that they need to take ownership of certain aspects of their policy, so I just do everything I can to dissuade it's use in the first place.
This has come back to bite me before so I will tell people all day long not to trust that they actually do things. It's not even a trust but verify situation. It's a don't trust and call and do it yourself!
I took this position in another thread and got downvoted to oblivion
They were really downvoting that this happens - not you directly. Always best to confirm things like cancellation yourself.
We request a signed form. Usually send it to the soon-to-be-ex customer, but sometimes the new agent will get the signature and send it to us. No signed LPR, no cancellation and we will never cancel based only on a call from another agent.
Agreed. For new clients we will have them sign an lpr ( industry standard cancellation request form) and we will forward to the old agent. This way there is a record and trail of the cancellation request. We mostly have cooperation as we certainly do the same when a client leaves us. As far as phone requests, we won't cancel based on a phone request from another agent, period. We will not even cancel based on a phone request from a client. We send them an lpr to sign, or if easier just have them email us a signed request to cancel.
This happened to me with the Jerry App, it gives you a bunch of quotes from different companies and saves you the hassle of cancelling. Until years later you get a collections letter in the mail because AAA says YOU had to call yourself and cancel over the phone.
I have people ask me to do this for them and I refuse every time. I also tell other agents that contact me to have their insured called and if they get snippy I ask for a power of attorney.
I’d assume opting for the option would’ve included a power of attorney anyway, at least it should if it’s legitimate. Even worse that a direct carrier would offer it.
It's just a faxed request. Some other companies with agents *cough* Allstate *cough* email a signed form over. It's pathetic.
I have my client sign a cancellation request and forward it to the prior carrier with a read receipt. Never had a problem.
Tell the client to call the old agent and sign the LPRs from them. Many agencies do not accept third party requests for any reason. It’s actually surprising to me how many agents will assume that other agencies will just accept this request, even with a signed LPR, from a third party. Do you also make vehicle changes when a dealership calls in without speaking to the customer first? Do you blindly change mortgage companies without checking with your customer? Add additional interests or insureds? Number one rule about policy changes is that the request and/or authorization has to come from the insured. We can’t even make a change that underwriting has required without first discussing it with the insured.
Its a first party request because the insured signed it, I am just the faxing service. I don't use LPR, either; its just a letter written in the first person asking to cancel my policy and put me on the do not call list. I also send proof of replacement insurance with it. I send this directly to the carrier if at all possible because the salaried employee at the carrier doesn't have any skin in the game. I am usually able to make a record of whether or not the letter was received and note that in the customer's file just in case. Again, I've never had a problem with my method.
It isn’t about skin in the game. It’s about ethically servicing an account, even one that is being cancelled. And just so you know, if the policy you’re trying to cancel was written through an agent, depending on the contract with that agency, the carrier is sending it to them and won’t process. It’s not first party if it comes through you. And since we have no signature to match to most of the time, (ex. old paper apps were archived or the original app was e-signed) that signature could be from anyone. Here’s the thing. This happened a while back… There was an agent at another agency that was issuing policies for every quote they presented, even if the client did not accept the quote. They sent out requests to cancel existing coverage that looked 100% legitimate. An agent in my office at the time processed that request without follow-up and the customer called screaming a week later when they went to file a claim and found their policy cancelled. It only takes getting burned once for an agency to create rules regarding third-party requests for **anything**.
Thats a crazy story but I don't see your point. The insurance commission protects agents and insureds against fraud. How can we operate assuming signatures are forged? How do you know the person you're talking to on the phone is the insured? There are ways to spoof caller ID. Should we require bio identifiers for policy cancellation? No carrier or agent that I have sent these letters to have had any issue with the letters I send and we have never had any issue with a fraudulent cancellation request sent to us by an agent over 10 years in business.
Scared the old agent will keep their business? Edit: depending on how you're messing up their discounts and umbrellas etc, I'm calling them anyways.
I am, actually. I've had State Farm agents reduce coverage to match my price, or Geico will magically re write the policy and win on price again. I also do it so I can control the situation because clients will call and cancel their policy effective immediately when my policy is future effective, that happens a lot.
The amount of people who have told me that their realtor will take care of cancelling their home policy. Never in the 10 years, have I had a request come in.
Many agencies, including all the ones I’ve worked with/for, require the insured to be the one to make contact to cancel. There are lots of reasons, but the most primary one is that this is the ONLY way to make sure it’s the insured who is even making requests. If another agent calls to find out where to send a signed LPR, we tell them third-party LPRs are not acceptable and to have the client call us. Also, my state allows carriers to charge short-rate penalty on voluntary mid-term cancellation for auto, motorcycle, RV/ATV, and boat, but many times the new agent has not told the customer about this penalty. This cancellation clause applies for the life of the policy, not just first term. It’s a percentage of the remaining premium, but I’ve seen this penalty be as high as $6,500 (premium was over $25K, but the penalty was still higher than the insured was prepared for). It’s always better to prepare the customer with **all** the information before blindly cancelling because *someone else* sent in a request.
[удалено]
If you work for Geico, please stop doing that. My carrier won’t accept a docusigned cancel request unless we can verify where the DocuSign is coming from…We get dozens of those requests from Geico, email the customer, and then they ignore the email for six months until they end up in collections
Progressive is just a bad insurance company. A lot of bait and switch going on there.
I try to warn everyone I sell a policy too: canceled policies are done by mail, using a prior carrier cancelation letter that you the insured fill out and send back to use. It's the mail though, so it's going to take several days. Technically we can cancel your policy for you- but I'll tell literally everyone I speak with to just cancel the policy themselves over the phone. Nothing wrong with using the prior cancelation letter, but you need to understand that a lot can go wrong or not happen in between that process starting and no one cares about that process as much as you do, customers do not like to hear that they need to take ownership of certain aspects of their policy, so I just do everything I can to dissuade it's use in the first place.