Why is my insurance broker so unhelpful?

Have you ever asked your insurance broker a question, and they responded with five paragraphs of pedantic gibberish meant to sound official? Like they're a child "playing business" by talking into a calculator?

Insurance brokers don’t know how to say “I don’t know.” So they say anything and everything else instead. 

What we’re really seeing is learned helplessness disguised as authority. They’re filling the silence with jargon because they think that’s what the situation calls for.

They don't understand your business, nor do they care to. Now that they've locked in the revenue, your questions and problems are just an inconvenience. So they respond with a condescending statement about something irrelevant.

In insurance, we’ve normalized gatekeeping as “expertise.”

They act like they’ve been granted the super-secret password to the kingdom, and you’re the foolish peasant trying to enter the palace gates. They'd prefer to sit in their ivory towers with their fax machines and land lines complaining about those annoying customers and their stupid questions. 

They’re not trying to share information. They’re firing the biggest words they have to end the conversation. 

The technical term for this is “baffling.”

The problem isn’t that brokers are slow and bad communicators (although it doesn’t help), it’s that they operate in a system where accountability is irrelevant.

I really don’t think they mean to be evasive. They're just the products of an industry that rewards sounding official, not being accurate.

In insurance, the payor isn't the customer, they're the product. The insurance company pays them the same 5-10% of premiums regardless of whether they give you good service. 

What we’re really seeing is misaligned incentives disguised as authority. They have no reason to follow through, just respond. We wouldn’t put up with this in any other business service.

The worst part is that it doesn't have to be this way. If they had just a tiny bit of curiosity and a willingness to help, there are ways to solve problems and get things done... even in insurance. 

But to do that, we would have to redesign the system and the behaviors that it incentivizes.

Having trouble problem solving with a know-it-all broker? We can help.

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