This post is part of a series sponsored by AgentSync.
Insurance compliance is serious business. Failure to comply can have real consequences for everyone from insurers, carriers, MGAs, and MGUs, to individual producers, adjusters, and dual-licensed broker-dealers.
Who you choose to work with to suit your needs is important. Choosing the right technology partner can transform your insurance license compliance processes from a nightmare to a dream come true.
Choosing the wrong partner, on the other hand, can lead to undesirable consequences, such as:
- Spending a lot of money on something that doesn't meet your needs
- Compliance risks and data security flaws
- Failure to achieve organization-wide acceptance and continued use of manual and flawed processes
- Losing employees and distribution channel partners because of how frustrating it is to work with – or with you –
While the industry is encouraging insurance businesses to adopt modern practices, many insurance compliance technology vendors have no qualms about doing business the way they always have. Often, this involves making serious “cases” against their customers. No, we're not talking about the kinds of crimes that land anyone in jail, but these violations are frustrating, expensive, and just plain wrong.
In this three-part series, we'll cover the most common “crimes” we see insurance compliance technology vendors making against their customer base. First are the various financial crimes: those that cost you more money than you should, or, worse, leave you in the dark about how much you're going to spend.
When insurance compliance brokers commit financial crimes
If you're looking to invest in a modern, automated manufacturer compliance management solution, saving money may be one of your motivations. Unfortunately, customers often find themselves spending more than they expected, or even wondering month after month and year after year how much money they will need to spend to keep their manufacturing, repair, and broker-dealer licenses and appointments running smoothly. order.
Some common financial crimes include:
1. Fees paid in addition to fees
There are unavoidable fees associated with manufacturer and repairer licensing and appointments. But, if the technology provider charges a transaction fee just for giving you the right to pay another one money, that's wrong.
When evaluating a compliance technology partner, be sure to ask what they charge for each service on top of payments businesses like countries and NIPR charged. If the answer is “nothing,” chances are you'll find yourself paying more each month than you budgeted for to find and keep your manufacturers, repairers, and brokers licensed.
Customer confession: “One company we talked to charges $2.50 for one time, $2.50 for each termination, and $1.75 for each PDB lookup. And all of that is on top of NIPR's standard fee for doing this transaction. “
2. Intangible values
Being willing to pay money is one thing, but not knowing what you're paying for is another entirely. Many compliant retailers send their customers a bill that makes it impossible to know what they are paying. Is that a subscription fee? National currency? NIPR money? Additional transaction fee? Who can say?
Before entering into an agreement with a compliance technology partner, clear and transparent values must be in place. If you're in that relationship, it shouldn't take a PhD in finance to figure out your monthly bill.
Customer confession: “We have $2 million in debt and it's hard to tell how much of that is unavoidable, like NIPR electronic processing fees or government-specific application fees, and how much of that will go to the seller.”
3. Paying for the latest data
When you sign up for a compliance management solution, you wouldn't expect to pay extra every time you want manage compatibility. However, that is exactly what some technology providers are looking for. Paying a PDB fee to feed accurate data from a true industry source to a program you are already paying for should be a crime!
Instead, look for a compliance technology partner that bases its pricing on a single flat fee, such as a fee based on the number of manufacturers (different NPNs) you want to keep open. Having accurate, day-to-day information about that manufacturer should be included in that cost, not re-charged every time you want to make sure the manufacturer's license is still valid in the state, for example!
4. Various bait-and-switches
Whether you sign up for something and learn that you don't get what you saw in the demo (without paying more), or being forced to pay to upgrade software you bought years ago and thought you could use forever, there are many examples of customers who think they are getting one thing and learn the truth later.
Honesty is important, even if it's not the answer you want to hear. We believe compliance partners should be transparent about what their solution can and cannot do, how much it costs, and all other terms and conditions, so customers can make fully informed decisions about what's right for them.
Customer confession: “To be honest, we're embarrassed to try another seller again because of the lack of transparency about what we've been dealing with.”
5. Holding your data for “ransom”
Although insurance compliance providers are not successful in “ransomware attacks” on your organization's data, it can feel that way! Many vendors make you pay extra to run reports so you can analyze the data you've entered and save it. If you've entered data, but you have to pay to analyze or report on it, is it really “your” data?
Sometimes, depending on the need, it costs more to create a custom report so that you can see exactly what you need in a particular way. We are not against anyone making money by doing add-on services. But that's different than a charge each time you use that report in the future, or you want to access today's version of that data (not last month's). Don't let vendors hold onto your data or make you pay extra to use it to make data-driven decisions. Insist on free access to view your data and do what you want with it.
Avoid becoming a victim of financial crime from your compliance technology
If you're currently working with insurance compliance technology that isn't treating you right – in one way or another! – see how AgentSync is different. AgentSync is committed to the concept of Customer Love. This means fair and transparent pricing, really supportive support, and a technical platform that pleases its users and is constantly updated and improved.
See how insurance compliance can be different for your organization by speaking with someone at AgentSync today.
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