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Maybe? What do you have?
I Can Do No Wrong...
- Thread starter CHUMPS FROM OXFORD
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Why was this thread bumped? The stories of the mistakes that were made are totally embarrassing.
Here's one for you: I had a guy that needed to beat the 63 day lapse clause and met with me the last day to make this possible. The carrier only accepted original apps and went by the postmark date. I handed the app off to my assistant to mail, and she mailed it to the wrong carrier, along with other apps. I asked my assistant what happened and she started crying, I asked her if she was on the phone, or chatting when she mailed it, and she told me no. I told her that it would be okay. Optimism works when people make innocent mistakes.
The carrier calls me to let me know they had a rogue app, and I ask them to do me a solid and mail it to the right place. They mailed it in the original envelope, so the postmark of the original mailing was visible. The carrier accepted it and he beat the 63 day lapse, even though it was over 2 weeks getting there. The end.
Here's one for you: I had a guy that needed to beat the 63 day lapse clause and met with me the last day to make this possible. The carrier only accepted original apps and went by the postmark date. I handed the app off to my assistant to mail, and she mailed it to the wrong carrier, along with other apps. I asked my assistant what happened and she started crying, I asked her if she was on the phone, or chatting when she mailed it, and she told me no. I told her that it would be okay. Optimism works when people make innocent mistakes.
The carrier calls me to let me know they had a rogue app, and I ask them to do me a solid and mail it to the right place. They mailed it in the original envelope, so the postmark of the original mailing was visible. The carrier accepted it and he beat the 63 day lapse, even though it was over 2 weeks getting there. The end.
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Often a spammer will bump the thread. Then he and his post are rightfully removed. In this case,the spammer is gone so it appears now that I bumped the thread.
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Or maybe it's a zombie thread, risen from the grave...
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I have done all sorts of stupid things by mistake as I learned, some of them more expensive than others:
1. Moved someone to a new health plan only to have the rates go up 15 days later. I didn't realize the carriers in my state raised rates at different points in the year (brand new to health insurance). The client was unhappy, can't blame him.
2. On the securities side, I had a client call up and want to sell 2,000 shares of XYZ. I placed the order without checking his account to find out he no longer owned XYZ. So it was sold short and when I realized the error, the stock price had already gone up $1. That was a $2,000 mistake I won't make again.
3. Another securities story. I had a client that with assets managed by a third party manager that had individual stock positions. We moved the client to a brokerage platform and instead of instructing the outgoing form to liquadate, it was transfered "in kind". So, there were literally almost 200 small positions, such as $30 of XYZ here, $120 of ABC over here, and so on. The exiting firm refused to take back the assets and liquidate, so that was over a $2500 lesson liquidating the positions for the client on my dime.
4. I have thrown all sorts of good money and bad marketing programs. Some were outright frauds and never did anything but take my money. Also expensive lessons. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Now I rarely ever use a third party for marketing and if I do, I go into it with the attitude that it sucks. Prove to me it doesn't. I want to see actual proof of multiple agents having success with it over a period of time and not just a flash in the pan. As a result, I do my own marketing.
All these mistakes were made in my first two years in the business. I have made plenty of other mistakes along the way, but those stick out to me. Nothing worse than your stomach tightening because you can't fix the mistake for the client or you know it's going to cost some money to make it right.
1. Moved someone to a new health plan only to have the rates go up 15 days later. I didn't realize the carriers in my state raised rates at different points in the year (brand new to health insurance). The client was unhappy, can't blame him.
2. On the securities side, I had a client call up and want to sell 2,000 shares of XYZ. I placed the order without checking his account to find out he no longer owned XYZ. So it was sold short and when I realized the error, the stock price had already gone up $1. That was a $2,000 mistake I won't make again.
3. Another securities story. I had a client that with assets managed by a third party manager that had individual stock positions. We moved the client to a brokerage platform and instead of instructing the outgoing form to liquadate, it was transfered "in kind". So, there were literally almost 200 small positions, such as $30 of XYZ here, $120 of ABC over here, and so on. The exiting firm refused to take back the assets and liquidate, so that was over a $2500 lesson liquidating the positions for the client on my dime.
4. I have thrown all sorts of good money and bad marketing programs. Some were outright frauds and never did anything but take my money. Also expensive lessons. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Now I rarely ever use a third party for marketing and if I do, I go into it with the attitude that it sucks. Prove to me it doesn't. I want to see actual proof of multiple agents having success with it over a period of time and not just a flash in the pan. As a result, I do my own marketing.
All these mistakes were made in my first two years in the business. I have made plenty of other mistakes along the way, but those stick out to me. Nothing worse than your stomach tightening because you can't fix the mistake for the client or you know it's going to cost some money to make it right.
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Be thankful you could make it right instead of ending up staring at a prosecuting DA sitting across the table from you.
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