Here's something I can't stand...

I can't stand it when people call my office and try to tell me how to do my job. I mean, I'm not gonna sit there and tell the guy at the car fix it shop how to fix my radiator, or how to do an oil change. I'm not gonna tell the bank teller how to enter my deposit. I wouldn't purport to know more about playing the guitar than The Edge or Eric Clapton. So why, oh why, do people think they can call an insurance office and tell me how to issue a certificate, or what form to use for an evidence of property, or without having ever seen the actual policy, tell me they have an insurable interest in someone's coverage?

Usually it's the mortgage lenders who are the worst offenders, or the loan closers. But occasionally, you'll get a caller who knows someone who knows someone who works in insurance, and that insurance "professional" has taken it upon themselves to advise this caller about a policy they've never seen and know nothing about. And then the caller calls me and tries to tell me what this other insurance "professional" has told them. And then it gets ugly, as it must, because none of what they've been told is based in reality.

Personally, my standards about my work are high enough that I would never advise a non-client about a coverage-related matter. I would never tell someone they had coverage or were entitled to coverage without intimate knowledge of their policy, or tell someone to call an insurance office and demand certain coverage before I knew the full story... that story being, who's the policy written with? Is this applicable to what the Insured does? Will the insurance company allow it? Ethically, it's inappropriate. In the state of Colorado, it's questionable as to whether or not it's even legal. Just because you have an insurance license doesn't mean you have carte blanche to advise everyone on the planet about insurance matters. It's ridiculous to make the leaps of logic it would take to think I'm doing the right thing by advising someone about insurance I don't even write, and haven't been asked to write.

All right... insurance rant done.