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 Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:44 pm Post subject: Recent Allstate Commercial |
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There is currently an AllState Commercial running in my area that takes place in a courtroom with a young man (maybe 17) being sued by another for an accident he caused. The ending states that the young man owes $100K. The other lawyer says they are going to start the process immediately to recoup the amoung and the boys lawyer says he doesn't have enough insurance. The other lawyer says they will get it from savings, college fund or any other assets. The boys parents ask if they can do that and the boys lawyer says they can.
I don't sell AllState but I love this commercial because it shows the ramifications of not carrying enough coverage. I actually think it is kind of surprising coming from AllState (no offense to those agents out there that carry AllState) but the agents in my area that we sell against have no problem pushing state minimum to get business instead of taking the customers best interest into consideration. My main point is that this is a great commercial and we should see more of them around.
Have you seen anything or done anything with this same thought in mind?
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Slappy
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| Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:06 pm Post subject: |
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I am an Allstate agent and I love the commercial also. My agency has received a lot of calls because of it.
Only thing I would have done is made the judgment $500K or more. That would open the door to discussions about Umbrella policies instead of just "raising" my limits. But don't get me wrong, any incoming phone call is a good phone call.
You are right..unfortunately. There are agents - of all companies - who will sell the minimum just to put the policy on the books. There are a few of us - again, all companies - who do want to put the best interests of the customers first, and suggest higher limits.
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LifeIsGood
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| Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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I've been an adjuster for about 17 years now. Want to know how many times I've seen an attorney go that far in a case?
**** 0 ****
So basically when it comes to the _real_ world, it's just Allstate using scare tactics to sell higher limits. A person _selling_ insurance can always justify someone having higher limits. So I ask the people selling... why not increase _your_ limits. |
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tcope
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| Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:51 pm Post subject: |
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We do increase our limits. We have very high limits of liability available to our clients. We also offer Umbrella polices in excess of 7 figures.
I have a friend, (fellow insurance agent) who had this happen to his client a couple of years ago. Accident, law suit, savings account and kids college fund depleted, lein against house and to this day, still garnishment on the paycheck.
You may not have seen it, but it does happen.
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LifeIsGood
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| Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:55 am Post subject: |
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I've seen the commercial.
It's compelling and misleading.
Most persons do not have assets beyond the state exemptions.
Certain assets are EXEMPT from lawsuit judgments regardless of value.
This varies greatly from state to state.
In Florida, the following assets are EXEMPT from lawsuit judgments:
| Quote: | 222.01 Designation of homestead by owner.
222.11 Exemption of wages from garnishment.
222.13 Life insurance policies; disposition of proceeds.
222.14 Exemption of cash surrender value of life insurance policies and annuity contracts from legal process.
222.18 Exempting disability income benefits from legal processes.
222.21 Exemption of pension money and certain tax-exempt funds or accounts from legal processes.
222.22 Exemption of assets in qualified tuition programs, medical savings accounts, Coverdell education savings accounts, and hurricane savings accounts from legal process. |
The vast majority of all regular persons wealth is concentrated in the value of their home and their IRA, 401k or Annuities.
Are you in good hands?
That's Allstate's stand!
Since Allstate, State Farm and every other brand name insurance company refuses to write homeowners insurance in Florida they are obviously attempting to scare up some liability insurance where none is actually justified.
In my humble opinion.
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GarySpicuzza
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| Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:14 am Post subject: |
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I'm not even sure if they show this commercial in Florida. Allstate's commercials are regional, for one of the reasons you state Gary - everything doesn't apply to every state.
I'm sure you will let me know if they do though.
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LifeIsGood
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| Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:32 am Post subject: |
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Well of course they showed it in Florida.
I've seen it a couple of times.
Like I said, it's compelling, just not reality for the most part. In fact, having the liability insurance would actually promote a lawsuit as the attorneys would now have a deep pocket, the insurance company, to go after.
As tcope wrote:
| Quote: | I've been an adjuster for about 17 years now. Want to know how many times I've seen an attorney go that far in a case?
**** 0 ****
So basically when it comes to the _real_ world, it's just Allstate using scare tactics to sell higher limits. |
tcope hit that one out of the ball park!
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| Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:42 am Post subject: |
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I welcome your opinion. They are like...what's the expression...armpits (or some other area of the body).
It's like I tell my clients when they give me the "if I have a large limit of liability, won't the attorney come after me for more money?" argument...
...better the insurance company then them.
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LifeIsGood
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| Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 9:35 am Post subject: |
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I've been an adjuster more than 20 years...seen excess policy limit judgements twice in all that time..both times the insured's were wealthy folks...and they paid, boy did they pay....
Doesn't mean it couldn't happen to anyone, and with todays sue happy greed world, well....
I'd say a good judge of this is...Gary, Todd, what are your liability limits? I carry 100k pd, and 250/500 bi/um........my state requires 10/25/50
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Lori
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| Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:55 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I'd say a good judge of this is...Gary, Todd, what are your liability limits? |
I carry the absolute minimum. I'm not even sure what that is, maybe $25,000?
Where's Joe the Plumber when you need 'em? P & C....yawn....not my thing.
No attorney is going to pursue a case when there isn't any money there.
Now, if you have $1,000,000 dollars of liability they'll be right on it!
But my point is what's the point of paying for extreme liability coverage when most all assets of most all persons are EXEMPT from judgments by state law in Florida?
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GarySpicuzza
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| Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 11:39 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | But my point is what's the point of paying for extreme liability coverage when most all assets of most all persons are EXEMPT from judgments by state law in Florida? |
Well first of all you're talking about Florida only, and I don't know that I'm sure about that...especially the garnishment...how is ANY judgement collected then?
I do KNOW in MO that if you fail to pay a judgement a garnishment can be attached after I think maybe 60 or 90 days....so in that case, Gary, you rearend someone, they have terrible injury's you have no defense at all for the loss (let's assume)...you want them coming after your earnings for the rest of your life? ok then....I don't get it but ok...do you carry an E and O policy atleast?
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Lori
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| Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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This same issue was brought up in another thread a few months ago. I mentioned then that automatically thinking buying higher limits was not always appropriate as... as this was unpopular... _I_ thought people should obtain insurance to protect themselves... not to protect other people. I'm not saying this is the only thing to consider or even that it's the best way, just that I think people need to keep it in mind. It's kind of nice to see someone agree.
I'll briefly explain what I mean. Should a person who does not have 2 dimes to rub together spend their hard earn money paying for higher limits just so other people are protected? Or is it more appropriate that _I_ take higher limits to protect _myself_ from people like that? So I'm not saying that higher limits are not a bad thing... I'm just shifting the responsiblity to protecting ones self rather then protecting others with the insurance.
Now I moved from FL to UT and I've now realized that at least some states are much more liberal in how a judgement can be collected. But still, even as Lori acknowledges, it's extremely rare that an injury attorney will refuse a policy limits offer and go to court in order to obtain a judgement. I'll have to be honest here... it's because 99.9999999999% of the injury attorneys out there would rather take their 33% of the limits immediately and move on to the next case rather then spend the time to obtain a judgement (a judgement gives them the policy limits and a judgement but what is a judgement going to get them).
With that said, I'm _not_ saying everyone should have state minimum limits. In every or almost every situation state minimum limits are just _way_ to low. Gary, if I remember correctly, FL minimum limits are 25/50/10. Right off the bat, $10k PD limit is _way_ to low. Many people don't have collision insurance so you might hit someone that is willing to take you to court. Get a quote on going from $10k to $20k and I think you will see that it's not much money. In that case you'd be getting a good bank for your buck. FL has $10k PIP and it's non-recoverable. So that 25/50 could be view as 35/60. Is this enough for Gary? It _might_ be. But I have to think such a smart fellow might have some assets. I'd recommend that Gary ask his carrier what 50/100 might cost. I increased by BI limits one time and I I think the difference was like $20/year (it was awhile ago). Wow... I could double my protection for $20/year! I did it. But the question here is, how much is enough? Is higher _always_ better? If not (and it's not) where should people stop? I have no doubt that everyone will agree that this is a valid question. As such, if your going to tell someone that they need/should increase their limits, you also need to be able to tell them how high they should go.
I do see the Allstate Commercial as having a good _point_ (very good point), I just think the way it presents itself is more of a scare tactic to get people to automatically increase their limits and it does not provide any other value. It's content is really inappropriate. Let's take the worst possible scenario and present it to everyone to make it look like it's an every day event. It's just a little scumming IMHO. Better to have a commercial telling people they should increase their UMBI coverage.
I also lied about something... I said I'd be brief. |
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tcope
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| Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:40 pm Post subject: |
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Every state is different. We all know why Florida is so popular with those CEOs who drove their companies into the ground but kept the high salaries and big houses for themselves (MCI, etc). Of course, OJ loves Florida. All for the reasons that Gary stated above.
To each his own with coverage. I hope nobody on this board (or anybody I know for that matter) is put into a situation where these opinions are tested.
I also hope there aren't insurance agents out there telling their customers that all they need is the state minimum because, "Well, if you get into an accident, they can't come after anything you own because everything is exempt. You can wipe out a school bus full of kids - kill every one of them - and their famlies can't touch you. So..don't worry..just carry the state minimum."
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LifeIsGood
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| Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I also hope there aren't insurance agents out there telling their customers that all they need is the state minimum because, "Well, if you get into an accident, they can't come after anything you own because everything is exempt. You can wipe out a school bus full of kids - kill every one of them - and their families can't touch you. So..don't worry..just carry the state minimum." |
I'm not advocating that either and I doubt it's happening (an agent telling people to buy lower limits?). This is also not really inline with what I was saying.
Question... do you "sell" higher limits to people to protect themselves from others with lower limits? For example, if I did not have UMBI, would you try to talk me into buying it? Would you also try to get me to buyer higher limits?
If so, you're telling someone who might hit me to take BI limits to pay the people they might hit and your also telling the person how might get hit to take higher limits to protect themselves. That is actually fine (as BI can be sold for the reasons mentioned in the Allstate commercial)... but my question is this... who's responsibility is it to protect myself?
Yes, I _should_ have BI limits high enough to protect myself _from_ other people. I'm just saying perhaps I should not look at increasing my limits because I can cause someone that much of a loss. Perhaps it's _that_ person's responsiblity to provide themselves adequate limits to protect _themselves_ from me. That may sound selfish but think about it... isn't that a smarter way of looking at it?
Again, I'm not saying everyone should just drop their BI and PD limits to state minimum. I do acknowledge that those coverages really do protect the person who buys them. I'm just pointing out how and why people should consider the amount of those coverages that they obtain. |
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tcope
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| Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I'm not advocating that either and I doubt it's happening (an agent telling people to buy lower limits?). This is also not really inline with what I was saying. |
Unfortunately, there are agents that do just that. Just to put the business on the books.
| Quote: | | Question... do you "sell" higher limits to people to protect themselves from others with lower limits? For example, if I did not have UMBI, would you try to talk me into buying it? Would you also try to get me to buyer higher limits? |
It's all part of the process. I would first evaluate your need. Are you a 21 year old college student, living in the dorm, who drives his car maybe 15 miles a week? Those needs are different from a 45 year old man who owns his own business, wife stays home, 3 kids, $850K house, $250K lake house with 2 boats and 4 jet skis, kids plan on going to college and he wants to retire by age 60.
| Quote: | | If so, you're telling someone who might hit me to take BI limits to pay the people they might hit and your also telling the person how might get hit to take higher limits to protect themselves. That is actually fine (as BI can be sold for the reasons mentioned in the Allstate commercial)... but my question is this... who's responsibility is it to protect myself? |
Ultimately, it is everyone's responsiblity to take care of themselves. But as we all can attest to, society today isn't geared on that philosophy. It is a gimme gimme philosophy. Everyone will SUE, SUE, SUE. So unfortunately, in our responsible attempt to take care of ourselves, we must do things to ensure that we are truly taken care of. And today, that means doing things because we know others won't.
| Quote: | | Yes, I _should_ have BI limits high enough to protect myself _from_ other people. I'm just saying perhaps I should not look at increasing my limits because I can cause someone that much of a loss. Perhaps it's _that_ person's responsiblity to provide themselves adequate limits to protect _themselves_ from me. That may sound selfish but think about it... isn't that a smarter way of looking at it? |
I agree 100% percent. And there is nothing wrong in being selfish. But you also must be realistic. If you are responsible for causing that above mentioned 45 year old's death in an auto accident, and you have 50/100/50 coverages, do you think his wife will be happy with the 50K your insurance pays her? Yes, he probably has tons of insurance that she will undoubtedly benefit from but the amount can never be enough.
As to UIM, God forbid something happens to you. If you have 50/100/50 auto coverages, will that 50K be enough for your wife to survive should you not be around? Why should you pay for someone else's lack of insurance? Because people don't have insurance. You want to do the responsible thing and make sure your family is taken care of.
| Quote: | | Again, I'm not saying everyone should just drop their BI and PD limits to state minimum. I do acknowledge that those coverages really do protect the person who buys them. I'm just pointing out how and why people should consider the amount of those coverages that they obtain. |
A responsible agent will ask the right questions and determine the needs of the family. Any agent who just quotes the minimum, as I have said before, is not looking out for the best interests of the client and his/her family.
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