Organization Is Elementary With The Professor!  

We've made it our life's goal to help people (who decide they want our help) become more efficient in organizing all of the important things they have accumulated over their lives.

The following true story has been submitted by a co-founder of The Professor:

My primary service to the world has been selling life insurance, and over the many years I have been in the life insurance industry I have seen many people hurt by not planning properly when it comes to maintaining their life insurance. They do the right thing to protect their loved ones and assets when they buy a life insurance policy, but they fail to do the one thing that is most important-maintain and communicate their policy information with their loved ones!

A couple of years ago I got a call from an associate who was in tears. She knew I was in the life insurance business and she was very upset and thought I could help her. Shelly's dad was flying his single engine Cessna airplane and lost control of it. He crashed the plane and died on impact. I knew her dad well-he was a life insurance agent, and a good one at that. Daniel had been writing life insurance with me for years. He was so successful in his profession he was able to afford an airplane and one of his favorite hobbies was flying.

Shelly shared with me, with significant grief in her voice, that her dad had told her many times over the years that he had life insurance for her mother and her if he passed away, and Shelly was happy to hear this, but she never thought to ask Daniel anything about his policies-where they were, what companies they were with, how much benefit would pay out if he died. She told me that she just felt uncomfortable talking about death with her dad, who was very healthy and vibrant. So she just assumed that Daniel had all of his affairs in order if something terrible happened and he died.

Unfortunately, Daniel didn't. He had written hundreds (maybe thousands) of life insurance policies for his clients over the 25+ years he had been in the business and he had maintained (somewhat inadequate) files on his clients' policies, but he did not have any files on his own life insurance policies! Daniel died on a Saturday, and Shelly called me the next week. Her and her mother were going through all of Daniel's files (which had been locked up-Shelly's mother had to search through endless keys to find the right one to open the file, which took her a couple of days) and they spent a full day sifting through all of the cluttered papers trying to find all of the important information they needed to get Daniel's final affairs in order. They found phone numbers to bank accounts and brokerage accounts Daniel had closed long ago but had kept the records 'just in case'. They found insurance policies on homes the family had moved out of decades ago. They found old health and dental insurance policies from when Daniel was with a large firm over 25 years ago. After making many calls to many different agencies, many of which were no longer even affiliated with Daniel, they eventually found some of the right contacts and were able to clear up some of Daniel's affairs. They found their current mortgage balance, current automobile insurance (and airplane insurance), health insurance and other important information, but they simply could not find anything pertaining to Daniel's life insurance policies.

Being an independent agent over the previous 25 years, Daniel was licensed to sell life insurance  through 22 different companies! So Shelly and her mom called every one of these companies, one at a time, only to find out eventually that Daniel did not have his own personal life insurance through any one of these carriers.

Now, I have dealt with many insurance companies, and I know how aggravating it can be to get good service from the customer service departments at these companies-even when you KNOW that a policy is with that particular company- so I felt Shelly's pain as she was explaining the frustration her and her mom went through, only to find out after hours of calling 22 different companies, that none of them was the right company. What I could not comprehend was the additional struggle Shelly and her mom had to face emotionally, knowing that they had both lost the most important person in their lives forever just days before. Not a fun situation to be in.

Shelly finished her explanation as to why she was calling me, her emotional pain and frustration getting more and more noticeable as the conversation ensued, and then asked me simply: 'can you help me find out where my dad's policies would be?'

I felt more helpless than I ever had in my life when I answered her. I told her that, unfortunately, I couldn't help her. The only people who could legally access this information were Daniel, his beneficiaries and the insurance company(ies) he had his policies with. I sympathetically gave her the phone number to the state Department of Insurance office and recommended she call them to see if they could help. She thanked me with a quivering voice and we ended our conversation.

I wish the story ended on a positive note, but it doesn't. I followed up with Shelly the next day to see if she was able to get anywhere in finding her dad's policy information. She informed me that she had not. She asked me in a desperate voice 'shouldn't the insurance company be calling us?' I had to break the bad news to her that the insurance company (whichever company that was) was not obligated to initiate the contact with her or her mom, and that the company would have no way of internally knowing that Daniel had died. Her mom (Shelly beleived she was the beneficiary of the policy/ies) would have to initiate the claim by sending a death certificate to the proper insurance company.

To this day, three years later, Shelly and her mom have not received one penny of Daniel's life insurance policy.

This is just one of many similar stories I have been involved with in my years in the life insurance industry. The number of unpaid life insurance claims, due to this same type of situation, is staggering and very sad.

This situation could have been avoided completely if Daniel (or Shelly, or Shelly's mother) had done just one thing. Daniel assumed that by purchasing life insurance, he was protecting his family and his assets- and he was partially correct. The one thing Daniel didn't do was share his policy information with those who needed to know if he wasn't able to access it himself. Failing to do this cost Daniel many dollars in premiums he paid to keep the policy inforce, and it cost his family in lost time, energy and a death benefit that they never saw.

This is one reason why we developed our program-The Professor-Personal Reference & Organization Filing System; to help those who want to ensure that their loved ones have access to their important information if they need it.

We sincerely hope that you take this lesson to heart.  Don't let this happen to you! The Professor will give you the tools you need to avoid this painful situation (and other similarly disheartening situations) in your own life.

Don't Let this happen to you!

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