Call 513-662-7000 we offer a very powerful service called the Claims Advocacy Program. ™

Most people probably want to avoid claims.  It can be time-consuming and frustrating.

What’s more sometimes claims are denied by insurance companies, the claim settlement could be delayed, or we receive far less than what we believe we are owed. Statistically more than 300,000 documented complaints are filed against insurance companies each year.

In the state of Ohio a total of 1304 complaints were filed against insurance companies on automobile insurance claims in Ohio. 874 complaints were filed against homeowners insurance companies in Ohio.  The top three reasons why someone would file an insurance complaint in Ohio:

• #1 Claim Settlement Delays (#3 for Homeowners Insurance Complaints in Ohio)
• #2 Claim Denials (#1 for Homeowners Insurance Complaints in Ohio)
• #3 Unsatisfactory Settlement Offer (#2 for Homeowners Insurance Complaints in Ohio)

What Is the Pathway Claims Advocacy Program™ And How Does It Benefit You As a Policyholder of Pathway Insurance?

First of all what is a claim advocate? It’s simply someone that stands up for your rights as a policyholder.  We might think that our individual insurance agent would stand up for our rights as a policyholder; it would seem that this would be part of their job description, is this truth or fiction? 

The real truth is that many insurance agents will not lift a finger to help their clients with insurance claims in Ohio if there were a dispute.  Some may not be permitted by their insurance company that they sell policies for, some have no clue how to help their policyholders if there’s a dispute, and others simply have no desire to help their customers resolve claims disputes.  If your insurance agent in Ohio will involve themselves in claims resolution for their clients, you have an insurance agent that is worth their weight in gold!

In our next issue we will show you how the Pathway Claims Advocacy Program™ works in real life.

Do You Want an Insurance Agent in Cincinnati That Stands up for Your Rights as a Policyholder?

Call 513-662-7000, or begin an online insurance quotes in Cincinnati by clicking here.

*There are some limitations to what we can offer with thePathwayClaims Advocacy Program. ™ For instance, we cannot provide legal advice as we are not licensed attorneys. We cannot overrule or overturn insurance company final claims decisions, especially on claim denials whereas the policyholder has engaged in some type of prohibited activity, or they did not purchase the appropriate coverage, or failed to add endorsements necessary to cover an incident that would normally be excluded from coverage. Please call 513-662-7000 for more details or questions about this service.  Additionally if you have already secured the services of an attorney we cannot provide any assistance to you.

Unfortunately I did (as an insurance agent) and I almost lost that fight.

How can my personal experience help you as a client of Pathway Insurance?

First of all what I learned from this experience has given me the necessary motivation to make sure that something like this never happens to one of my personal clients. 

Additionally it gave me the essential knowledge that many insurance agents lack on how to maneuver through the claims system to achieve more favorable results for clients when it seems like the claim is not being handled properly or taking longer than necessary.

In fact this service can be so valuable to you that even if our rates were higher than one of our competitors, you could be making a mistake by changing to that company. (Unless they offer a similar satisfaction guarantee which is our promise to you to do everything within our power to assist you with claims if there were a problem.)

When I first entered the Insurance business over two decades ago I exclusively sold life insurance and investments and purchased my car and home insurance from a local Farmers Insurance agent in Western Hills.

How did my personal claims nightmare begin?   It started when I decided to obtain insurance quotes from other local insurance agencies including GEICO insurance.  GEICO predominantly sells car insurance directly to the public without local insurance agents.  Like most folks I wanted to make sure I wasn’t paying more than I should for my insurance.  (Read the article on why you might want to reconsider buying your insurance directly from a company.)

I found a company that offered incredibly cheap car insurance rates in Cincinnati and I saved about $200 compared to my previous premium. 

Within the first 6 months one driver on my policy was involved in two accidents.  The first accident was not reported to the insurance company since it was relatively minor.  The second accident totaled the vehicle and that’s when my trouble began.

The claims adjustor noticing the previous damage from that unreported accident I mentioned immediately charged us for 2 collision deductibles!

It was never our intention to turn a claim in for this minor dent, yet we were penalized for it.  The next bit of bad news is that the adjustor was underestimating our loss by more than $1,500 compared to the true value of that vehicle.

I called the agent whom I purchased my car and home insurance policy looking for his help and his answer to me was:

“I don’t handle claims you need to work directly with the company.”

(Because I was a licensed insurance agent I assumed that my agent would help me, how wrong that proved to be.)

I called the insurance company relentlessly over an extended period of time, essentially hitting a stone wall.  I finally decided to make one final attempt to settle this claim without seeking the aid of an attorney. (That was my next step)

I wrote a 5 page letter addressed to the President of the Insurance Company and mailed a copy to every single claims office in the United States explaining why I felt the claim was not being settled fairly and what steps I would take to remedy the situation.  My strategy did pay off as the individual claims offices forwarded my letter to their legal department.

A Vice president working for the company called to let me know he was getting letters faxed to him from all over the country and they wished to settle my claim immediately…Evidently I had become a royal pain in their back side sorting through all the letters I sent to them.

He then said, “If we agree to your terms will you  be satisfied with that?” I indicated that I would and he faxed a release letter for me to sign agreeing to the indicated amount in my letter.

I won.  Or had I?  Within 2 days I obtained my claims settlement check but the sheer amount of time I invested in settling the claim was not worth the extra $1,500 I obtained. I spent more than 100 hours of my time fighting the insurance company.  I spent hundreds of dollars in postage.  Breaking it down I made on average about $13 per hour for my time, but in reality that was money I should have been given in the first place.

Believe me you can find better ways to spend your time. 

The agent I purchased my insurance from should have offered assistance.  If he would have offered to at least make a few phone calls in my behalf I would have been satisfied that he tried to help.  However like most agents he did not lift a finger to lend at hand. 

I was swimming in the water all alone without a lifevest and had to settle the claim myself.  (Is that how you want to be treated when you have a claim?)

By the way I dropped that agent like a hot potato!  If you have ever had a bad claims experience and your agent didn’t help you why should you patronize bad behavior?  Click here  and allow our agency to handle your insurance needs. 

It has been said that what we experience in life shapes our personality and demeanor.  I vowed to never allow something like this happen to a client.

Wouldn’t it be better for you to allow an agency like ours to care for your insurance needs?  Someone who will become a strong advocate for you if you have a problem?   

If you are not a client of our agency why not take an opportunity for us to at least provide some initial insurance quotes to you?  Click here.

If you have a question about our claims services please feel free to contact me directly by calling 513-662-7000 or sending a quick email to jack@pathwayinsurance.net

It’s true, review a report completed by the State of Ohio in 2008.  In this report you will find complaints filed against every major insurance company doing business in the state of Ohio.  

Despite what other insurance agents tells you, we would rather tell you the truth.  Sometimes a claim will go haywire for a number of different reasons with any company.

That being the case you need a strong advocate on your side.   

When you allow our agency to take care of your insurance needs we provide all clients a complete satisfaction guarantee.  We will do everything within our ability to help you with any claim that you have, even if it isn’t your fault.

We offer this exceptional guarantee based on an unfortunate incident that happened to me personally involving a very dreadful claims experience. You can read about my personal claims experience nightmare by clicking here.   

After getting the run around for 4 months from an insurance company I vowed to never allow something like this happen to one of my personal clients and that’s why we will do everything in our ability to help you with claims. 

This guarantee is so valuable to our clients that even if our rates were a little higher than one of our competitors you should seriously consider allowing our agency to handle your insurance needs. 

Making that additional investment in premium dollars for our complete satisfaction guarantee may save you thousands of dollars, for instance:

One client collected over $100,000 for their son who was involved in an accident and they had no clue they were entitled to that money. Without our direct intervention and advice from agents working for Pathway Insurance this client would not have collected one red cent!

Another client was hit by an uninsured motorist and we helped them collect every dime to repair their automobile.

Another client received valuable advice before a claim happened that saved his entire family from financial ruin.

As I had written in a previous article your insurance agent is in the best position to help you if the claim is not being handled to your satisfaction. Having an agency that stands behind their clients is more important than paying the lowest price on your insurance here in Cincinnati don’t you agree? 

If you have ever had a horrific claims experience having an advocate working for you could have made all the difference in the world.

Why not give our agency a chance to care for your insurance needs?  We are positive that you will not be disappointed.  Please feel free to contact me directly by calling 513-662-7000 or sending a quick email to jack@pathwayinsurance.net

Have you ever heard this expression:  You get what you pay for?  Our next article will continue our discussion of this important subject.

In any business you have good and bad workers.  The same is true for claims adjustors.  If you get a bad one, they will be rude, won’t return your phone calls in a timely fashion and will lose your paperwork.

You might be treated suspiciously as if you caused the claim on purpose, and when they finally make a settlement offer it’s so low it doesn’t even cover your medical bills. 

In my 20+ years of experience in witnessing nearly every conceivable claim scenario, for the most part the majority of claims adjustors do a fair job, but all it takes is one bad apple to spoil the reputation of an entire industry.

A few years ago one client who lives in Cincinnati experienced a burst pipe on their second floor and due to the weight of the water the ceiling collapsed, and destroyed the policy holder’s kitchen. (No one was home at the time thank goodness.)

The claim was immediately turned into the insurance company and within one day an adjustor was assigned to inspect the damages.  About 5 weeks after the claim was initially reported to our agency I spoke with a very angry policy holder wondering why the insurance company had not called him since that initial visit.   His kitchen was a complete shambles and the policyholder’s family had been eating take out for more than one month.

I immediately called the insurance company and within 10 minutes I learned that the claims adjustor had failed to make any follow up calls with the policyholder for some unexplained reason.  A check was in the policyholder’s hand the next day for all of the damages, including waiving his deductible. (The claims adjustor was actually fired because of this incident.)

It was only because of my direct intervention and my experience in dealing with the claims process that caused this particular claim to be settled within minutes practically. 

Your agent can be the most important factor in helping you to get your claim settled when it appears that the claims adjustor is dragging his/her feet, treating you disrespectfully, or low balling your claim. 

Because occasionally a claim can go haywire for any number of reasons. Pathway Insurance offers all clients a complete satisfaction guarantee.  We will do everything in our ability to assist you with claim regardless of whether you were at fault or not.

Most agencies or agents do not have the knowledge, experience, or desire to go to the extent that we do to help policyholders with claims.

Why not give our Cincinnati based agency a chance to care for your insurance needs?  We are positive that you will not be disappointed.  Please feel free to contact me directly by calling 513-662-7000 or sending a quick email to jack@pathwayinsurance.net

What specific steps can you take to make sure that doesn’t happen to you?

Logically we purchase insurance to pay for the “What If” scenario.  What if my house burns down?  What if I cause an accident? But the most important question we need ask is: What if my claim is not settled to my satisfaction?  What steps can I take?

Unfortunately insurance claims are not always settled to a policy holder’s satisfaction.  In the state of Ohio there were 1,583 complaints filed against insurance companies last year with the department of insurance.  Over 30% of those complaints filed were due to claim settlement delays. 23% was due to dissatisfaction with the settlement offer and 20% was because a claim was denied.

How could your insurance agent or company that sells insurance directly to the public be responsible partially for dissatisfaction in the claim settlement process?

In the following articles we’ll consider the top three reasons why Ohioans’ felt the need to file official complaints against their insurance company and what role your insurance agent should play in the claims process.

Let’s discuss the number one reason for consumer complaints against insurance companies in Ohio:

Settlement delays

A claim settlement delay complaint specifically implies that the amount of time that it takes to settle the claim has taken much longer than necessary from the customer’s perspective and they felt enough frustration to the point of filing an official complaint with the Ohio Department of Insurance.

First of all there are a number of legitimate reasons why a claim may be delayed. As a 20 year + veteran of the insurance industry working here in the greater Cincinnati area I have probably seen it all.  In my opinion and through observation I will tell you that some claims indeed are delayed unnecessarily and almost 50% of the time in my experience it is the claims adjustor handing your claim who has dropped the ball.

Because the claims adjustor drops the ball in getting the claim settled quickly we might assume that insurance companies have some hidden agenda to delay claims, but that is far from the case.  Insurance companies have been penalized substantially in the past for such occurrences and do whatever it takes to avoid a bad faith lawsuit.

What role does your insurance agent play in claims settlement if it appears that your claim is taking too long?  Well quite frankly a very important one as your agent is in the best position to make inquiries in your behalf directly with the claims department, including upper level claims managers that you may not be able to contact directly yourself.  

In my experience claims adjustors seem to increase their pace very quickly to settle your claim when a good agent put’s a “fire” under the claim adjustor’s backside.  Read this true life experience on how a bad claims adjustor turned a mole hill into a mountain of a mess and how our agency fixed the problem within 10 minutes or less.

If you have a claim and it seems the process is taking longer than necessary contact your agent first to see if they can help you.

Here is the bad news…some agents have no clue or experience on how to maneuver through the claims process and those who do may not be inclined to help you.  Why???  It takes in some cases much time and effort to assist policyholders with claims. Some local insurance agents that I associate with here in Cincinnati have complained to me personally “that’s why the insurance company has a claims department.” – But I argue if the claims adjustor is dropping the ball where do policyholders turn to?

If you have a good agent, your agent will help you.  If you have a bad agent they won’t lift a finger. 

If you are not a current client of our agency, click here to learn what specific steps our agency takes to help you settle claims and why this service is worth its weight in Gold if you ever have difficulty in getting your claim resolved.

Why not give our agency a chance to care for your insurance needs?  We are positive that you will not be disappointed.  Please feel free to contact me directly by calling 513-662-7000 or sending a quick email to jack@pathwayinsurance.net