BUYING INSURANCE – are you OUT and PROUD? By Christina Mae Olson, CFP®
Do you trust your insurance agent? Do you know if your insurance agent is going to take your unique LGBT concerns into account when working with you? I suppose that one can always choose the conventional route and just ask if they are “gay friendly.” Gulp. Some of you are probably thinking that is none of their business if you are gay. Are you “out” to your insurance agent? One of my clients said that their stock broker told them to their face that they are going to hell because they have a gay son. Wouldn’t you want to know if you were dealing with a professional like that? You might never know their bias if you aren’t willing to come out to them. I always ask now. How can I not – in lieu of that horrible story? That stock broker obviously didn’t want my client’s business. I wouldn’t want him working with my money, either!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just ask the professionals with whom we do business if they are gay or lesbian without fear of offending them? Why on earth should that be an offensive question? Being LGBT defines us – it’s an important factor in our lives! It can/should be part of the interview process – part of helping you decide if you want to give a professional your business.
If you google LGBT INSURANCE you’ll come up with some interesting links. One link sent me to www.gayfriendlybiz.com where I did a search on LGBT insurance companies and/or agents in Wisconsin. I found only one – and she is in Minneapolis! There is www.gaybusinessworld.com – with one link to an article about health care issues impacting the LGBT population. A further search from this website uncovered a link to a Milwaukee insurance agency. This was the only listing for Wisconsin! There was a Met Life representative at our PRIDE Festival last summer – her name is Roya Moltaji (www.rmoltaji@metlife.com). She is located in Bloomington, MN but comes to the Coulee Region periodically building her business. Do you remember Roya?
Nationally, there is Gay and Lesbian Insurance Services (Seattle, Washington) at www.gayandlesbianinsuranceservices.com. They are a sort of clearing house and referral service for those seeking insurance. The Human Rights Campaign lists 14 large insurance companies as having a 100% rating in their 2008 Corporate Equality Index. Met Life is one of these. The web based insurance company Esurance, www.esurance.com, also got a 100% rating.
The insurance business is a hard nut to crack. You can’t just go to the insurance aisle in the store and pick out the best product off the shelf. Insurance is “sold” not “bought.” You really have to be talked into many insurance purchases. Many facets of the business will never be disclosed to you, the prospective client. Insurance, like cars and coffins, pays a commission to the broker/agent for each. They don’t/won’t tell you what that is. When I sold health insurance – the broker was paid 20% of the first year’s premium and 10% every year after that. Wow, what a mark-up!
If you pay $1800/year ($150/month) for health insurance – that means $360 goes to the broker for selling that policy to you. They’ll continue to get an ongoing income from your policy (increasing as the rates increase) – if that $1800 annual policy inflates by 16% next year to $2088 – they will earn $208! I always ask for full disclosure on commissions. It should be required by law! That way you can decide if your agent actually earned $360 for the 20 minutes they spent selling you their policy. Or, if they are worthy of a 10% cut every year you keep the policy.
Next month I will write in more detail about the differences between elective and mandatory insurance.
Chris Olson is a licensed Certified Financial Planner™ Practitioner in private practice. You can contact her at CMOney@centurytel.net or 608-525-9818.