When we left off, we were talking about the different way defense costs are handled under commercial general liability insurance policies and directors and officers insurance policies. Remember, CGL covers personal injury and property damage; D&O covers financial harm resulting from officers’ and directors’ management mistakes.
We may never know the answer to the question posed in the title of this series of posts. Fortunately, we do have research findings from Insure.com that offer us some insight into whether men or women tend to believe some common myths about insurance.
A recent survey shows a very interesting split between men and women when it comes to insurance. The survey, conducted by Insure.com, tested 2,000 adults’ knowledge of insurance without digging into their actual coverage or claims experience. The respondents were asked if 10 statements based on common myths about insurance were true or false. For the most part, men were more gullible than women.
We often talk about lawsuits filed by consumers against their insurance companies. The insurance company has not kept its promise, its contractual obligation to the policyholder, and the policyholder has suffered a loss as a result. Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn’t it?
We thought we would take a post or two to check in on some unfinished business. A friend recently asked about the case of the exploding corpse — cue Nancy Drew! — and, when Congress went back to work, we wondered what had happened with the proposed rules regarding access to the Social Security “death master file.” So here we go.
Is there anything easy about insurance? Health insurance has been a flashpoint for controversy for years now. Auto insurance has gone through some tough times, too, especially since the advent of no-fault coverage. Homeowners insurance — most Florida homeowners would likely start any discussion about property insurance by saying, “Don’t even get me started.”
For some reason, when we think about reading the fine print of an insurance policy, a Peanuts strip about Linus reading “The Brothers Karamazov” comes to mind. Lucy asks him if he finds the Russian names to be difficult. “No, when I come to one I can’t pronounce,” Linus replies, “I just bleep right over it.”
We encourage people to read their insurance policies thoroughly, even before they write the first premium check. The policy explains what is covered by the insurance, what kind of event triggers a valid claim, and what portion of the total loss the insurance policy will cover. The challenge is understanding exactly what the policy language means.
When we hear about insurance companies involved in lawsuits, it usually has something to do with suspected fraud, a denied claim or bad faith. The lawsuit we started to talk about in our last post struck us as unusual on just about every level — well, most levels, because the bottom line is still insurers’ bottom lines. They are arguing over property insurance claims they believe they should not have been forced to pay.
One of the things critics of the insurance industry sometimes overlook is that most insurance companies are businesses, not charitable organizations. That means insurers have to answer to shareholders, and shareholders want their investments to grow. Insurance companies provide a valuable service, even a social good, but they are just as subject to pressure to make a profit as the corner drugstore or Exxon Mobile Corp.
