Summary/Objective:
Life Insurance is one of the most common financial service products that is designed to meet the various needs of customers. Therefore, strong ethical business practices are a hallmark of a quality carrier and a life insurance professional. As a business owner, independent contractor or as employee a key focus should be on building and maintaining high standards. Building sound business practices are key to being successful. Having ethical principles/interactions is a must and what really defines if you are a professional in this occupation.
Over the year 2020, the following life insurance activity occurred in the United States was the following: 5,727,000 individual policies were sold with annualized premiums of $11,148,000,000. These results are significant! There are a lot of interactions with customers in the life insurance sales cycle and therefore lots of opportunities to do things right or wrong.
Digging into the National Association of Insurance Commissioner and Department of Insurance websites are two excellent tools to learn from the producer’s and consumer’s points of view. Reviewing Consumer Guides for Life Insurance and Annuities are two documents that serve as a refresher to keep your skills sharpen and aligned with current guidelines and recommendations.
Tips, suggestions, and a review of various Ethical Best Practices for a Life Insurance professional is the final section we will review. Finally, a 5-step decision making process will shared with all participants so if you are faced with ethical dilemmas in the future, you may have a process to work through the dilemma.