You know, I understand how referring someone, even when your experience was just like it should be, can be awkward. First you’ve had a good experience with a life insurance agent, friendly, personable, efficient and professional. You got what you  wanted and weren’t lied to. But life insurance is such a personal thing and since no two attempts at getting life insurance are the same, what if that experience doesn’t duplicate itself for your friend or relative? And it’s not like recommending a new super bright flashlight. In most cases recommending a life insurance agent comes without the ultimate proof, a paid claim. With the flashlight if your friend gets a bad one they can just trade it back in or return it and forget. You’ll probably still be their friend.

I’ve had an interesting referral experience that has lasted several years now. In this case a married lady in California asked her friend, also married in Hawaii what she knew about life insurance. Her husband was a student pilot and didn’t have any life insurance. Her friend and her friend’s husband were clients of mine and recommended that she call me, just a simple referral stating that, “the whole life insurance application process went easily”. So we ended up writing a $1 million life insurance policy on Mr California. This was back in the day when we could get student pilots life insurance approvals without flat extras or the need to exclude aviation and buy an accidental death policy just to deal with the avocation.

The policy had been in force almost two years and Mr California was on his last cross country flight with an instructor when the plane went down and both were killed. This happened within the two year contestability period which triggered an automatic review of underwriting. I walked his wife through the claims and investigation process and soon got the money paid to her and her children. While there’s never anything good about the death of a loved husband and father, with a little help from a friend in Hawaii this didn’t also end up being a financial disaster.

So just this year Mr Hawaii was diagnosed with cancer and died within a few months. Partly because of the experience of referring me to her friend, she had talked with her husband and they purchased another policy 3 years ago. When he died he was carrying $600,000 in life insurance. I handled all aspects of the process and we just got the last of the claims paid a few weeks ago.

Most often referring a life insurance agent is seen as a favor to the agent for a job well done, but remember that your recommendation, just like mine, can make a huge difference in a person’s life. If you have questions or if there is any way I can be of assistance in your quest for reasonably price, approved life insurance, call or email me directly. My name is Ed Hinerman. Let’s talk.