By Curtis M. Pearsall, CPCU, AIAF, CPIA of Pearsall Associates Inc.

While it may not happen often, from time to time, you may look to move your account from a claims made form to an occurrence form. There are some key issues for agents to be aware of that if not handled properly could definitely spell trouble for your customer and ultimately for your agency.

With a claims-made form, the policy in effect when the claim is brought is responsible for responding to the claim. Claims-made policies either contain a retro date or provide full prior acts coverage. For coverage to apply if the policy contains a retro date, the injury/error or omission, etc. must occur after the retro date. Thus, with a claims-made policy, the trigger is when the claim is made, not when the injury/error or omission occurred.

With an occurrence form, the policy in effect when the injury or damage occurs will respond to 
the claim. Provided the injury or damage occurred during the policy period, an occurrence form 
will respond regardless of when the claim is brought, subject to any applicable statute of limitations.

There is tremendous potential for a gap in liability coverage to occur when the insured's policy coverage goes from a claims-made to an occurrence form. Let's assume policy dates of 2011 for the claims-made policy and 2012 for the occurrence form. A common scenario is where the injury occurs during the claims-made policy period (2011), but the claim for the damages is made during the occurrence policy period (2012).

In this case, neither policy provides coverage since the occurrence form only pays if the injury occurs during the occurrence form's policy period. The injury/error or omission occurred in 2011, before the occurrence form went into effect. Because a claims-made form only responds to claims made during the policy period, neither policy's condition is met. The injury/error or omission occurred before the occurrence form existed - and the claim came after the claims-made form expired. This has the potential for your customer to have an uncovered loss.

The suggested course of action to avoid a gap in coverage when an account is moved from a claims-made form to an occurrence form is for the insured to purchase an Extended Reporting Period, a/k/a as a "tail", under his claims made policy. It is critical that customers/agents realize this tail option must be exercised within a set time period (typically 60 days). Essentially, the tail provides an additional time period to report a claim for any injury/error or omission that occurred during the claims-made policy period and after any applicable retro date.

Moving an account from "claims-made" to "occurrence" or vice versa is a serious issue. It is extremely important for the agent to provide full and open disclosure to the customer to make sure that they are aware of any potential issues involving the two forms with all discussions well documented not only in the agency system but also with written communication back to the customer.

By Michael Beck of Michael Beck International, Inc.

There's no avoiding it.  You're bound to come across someone who's difficult to deal with.  It's inevitable as soon as you add different personalities, experiences, and backgrounds to the mix.  They may be someone we report to or someone who reports to us.  Or they may be a peer, a vendor, or a client.  The bottom line is that it's going to happen and generally can't be avoided.  If we are to be effective as a leader, we must become good at dealing with those difficult people.

Whoever they are, they usually cause anxiety, frustration, concern, and/or anger in us.  The irony is that when we become anxious, frustrated, concerned or angry, we ourselves, can become difficult to deal with.  Consequently, it is imperative that we become adept at dealing with them.  Occasionally we can avoid the person altogether, but more often than not, it's a relationship we have to address.

One course of action is simply to tolerate the other person.  This course of action (or more accurately, inaction) is one which avoids confrontation and maintains the status quo.  Productivity remains consistent and there's no risk of workplace "drama".  Unfortunately, by not dealing with the situation, you end up perpetuating a number of counterproductive dynamics.  You end up expending valuable energy by "tolerating" an unsatisfactory situation.  It affects your attitude, your thoughts, and your productivity.  Additionally, in your attempt to shield or isolate yourself from this person, they end up feeling neglected and unappreciated.  When that happens, they tend to "check out", becoming complacent and apathetic - simply going through the motions at work.  It's not a very fruitful course of action.

There's one other negative dynamic that exists when we tolerate a difficult person.  Although it may feel like the issue is between the two of you, in fact, a difficult person affects your entire team.  When you allow a difficult person to persist, it reflects on your leadership style and your values.  This, in turn, negatively impacts your ability to lead effectively.  Additionally, the age-old adage holds true, "One bad apple spoils the barrel," as will be evidenced by the people who'll come forth voicing their relief once the difficult person is gone.

Another course of action might be to reflect on our own behaviors and attitudes, and decide to change ourselves.  While this occasionally may be appropriate, generally it's not.  (A good test is to observe whether there are many "difficult" people on your team.)  In fact, our initial reaction to this course of action might be, "Why should I be the one to change?  It's clear the other person is the one with the problem."  Not only would that be valid, but it sheds some light on how to handle the situation, because if our thought is to ask the other person to change, their reaction would most likely be the same.  "Why should I be the one to change?"  This of course poses a problem because in fact, that person generally IS the problem.

The answer to this dilemma is to have an honest and transparent conversation with the person.  As a leader, we have the opportunity and an obligation to develop people and help them grow.  We need to be compassionate, yet strong.  We need to be empathetic, yet work change their perspective.  We accomplish this by acknowledging the situation and by asking good questions.  This course of action helps us understand their perspectives and motivations.  By doing this, not only can you positively impact their enjoyment of and satisfaction with their work, but you'll help them to be more effective and productive.  If nothing else, you'll help them gain clarity about themselves and then help them (in a positive way) move on to another opportunity which better suits their skills and their perspectives.

Mastering the ability to effectively deal with difficult people will enhance your leadership effectiveness and enrich the lives of the people around you.

Michael Beck is an Executive Strategist and specializes in business strategy, executive development, and leadership effectiveness.  Connect on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mjbeck  and visit www.michaeljbeck.com to learn more.  Permission to reprint with full attribution.  © 2012 Michael Beck International, Inc.

Does X dating still work?

The direct writers discovered the concept that people are more apt to change their insurance coverage when it renews, than at any other time during the year.

But...the present emphasis on buying personal insurance on the Internet has removed some of the value of X-dating? Or has it?

Not exactly!

I still encourage agents to ALWAYS ask contacts, friends, whomever, (especially commercial lines prospects) these two questions:

1.      When does your insurance expire?

2.     What is your e-mail address?

Here are some X-dating ideas that have worked over the years:

Rule of 500:

Each Producer/CSR gets 2 personal lines X dates each day (ten a week, 500 a year).  Statistics show that the results can average six interviews and three sales for every ten calls made on those expiration dates.

Pay for X-dates?

Pay your staff for x-dates. Why not pay $5.00 for every x-date...and even give them a flat fee ($25-50) for every x-date they obtained that turns into a sale?

Commercial lines x-dating

Commercial lines x-dating still works. Agents tell me that, on average, for every ten commercial lines x-dates they garner, three interviews will take place, one sale will be made.

X-dating at renewal time

Even if you can't turn the one or two-policy customer into a full-service client at renewal time, you CAN and should to get his/her x-dates for all the coverage's you don't write. Make this standard procedure in your office.

The magic rule of thumb for selling insurance is when the client tells you "The more you know about me (and my business) the better your chances to sell me",  having the x-date is the first step towards success.

How Is Online Copywriting Different From Offline Copywriting?

To become an effective copywriter for the Web, the first thing you need to learn are the major differences between online and offline copywriting.

Who Reads It?

Offline copies are printed on various materials, and they"re something that some people may read just to pass the time. With no expectations, offline readers can afford to be more patient and forgiving.

Online copies, however, don't have that luxury. More often than not, Internet users have a reason for visiting a website and they definitely have expectations when it comes to reading any online copy. And since they know what they want and what to look for, they"re more inclined to be impatient and wouldn't hesitate to switch to another article if what they"re currently reading proves to be unsuitable.

One Chance from Start to Finish

Again, certain situations in the offline world give readers no chance to be choosy. Reading from a single magazine limits them to the contents of the magazine. If there are no other magazines available and they need to acquire certain information or, once again, they"re desperate to pass the time, they have no other recourse but to read the magazine from start to finish.

Second chances are rare for online copies and as such, you need to make every word powerful and significant from start to finish, beginning with your headline and until you finish your call to action.

Switching from one copy to another is also easier for online readers. With search engines more than ready to supply them with the next best link if your copy proves to be inadequate, the only way to keep their attention is by making every sentence worth their time.

Cost

Offline copywriters may occasionally have to worry about the costs of printing their works in a certain format. Too many paragraphs as well as larger fonts could make the cost of publishing escalate in an alarming rate, and for this reason, they"re forced to make adjustments, which are not always favorable to readers, to their works.

Online copywriters, in this case, stand to gain more from their line of work. Since text weighs little in terms of bytes, formatting rarely make a substantial difference to their work. As a result, they can afford to make more paragraphs and keep it short - exactly the way their online readers like it. Having large fonts aren't a problem either. Indeed, they can change the color of the text and suffer from no additional cost.

Skimming

Online readers have a habit of skimming, and they do it more frequently than their offline counterparts. Web copywriters will, of course, have to adjust their work accordingly.

Skimming makes optional formatting techniques in offline writing necessary in online copywriting. Subheadings are one of them. Their presence ensures that online readers are still able to comprehend the gist of the copy even if they"re skimming. If you can supply one subheading for every paragraph, that can only work to your favor!

Now that you"re aware of the differences between online and offline copywriting, you can apply what you've learned the next time you write an online copy. These newfound tips may make writing more difficult at the start, but rest assured they come with greater rewards!

Remember to double-check for errors before uploading your work. Good luck on keeping the attention of your readers!

This month's EBook is entitled, "57 Email Link Building Tips Part 2"