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We just opened a nursing agency, the nurses that work with us are not our employees, we contract with them for a period of time, and contract with a medical facility for the nurse’s services. We have checked with 5 different Insurance Agencies for workman’s compensation, and we have been told that there is no market for workman’s compensation for subcontractors. Workman’s compensation is optional in TX. What other kind of insurance do we need?

Yep, Texas is the only state where Workers Comp insurance is not required by law. HOWEVER. If you hire an uninsured sub, then YOU are still on the hoook for the benefits, even if you don’t have a policy in place.

So. You can’t buy workers comp Insurance for just subs. But unless you want to be stuck holding the bag, you will need to require your subs to buy workers comp insurance, AND provide you with proof of coverage. Otherwise, YOU will have to pay lost wages and medical costs.

The same goes for professional liability, auto liability, and general liability – YOU, the general contractor, are on the hook, unless your subs are fully insured, naming you "additional insured" on their policies.

See, too many businesses try to get around paying for benefits and coverages for employees, and to get around paying taxes on their payroll, by calling them subs. So the law has reacted, by holding the general responsible for any uninsured subcontractors.

Your agent should be advising this.

If the money passes through your organization, you DO need liability, workers comp, auto liability, professional liability, and likely property coverage.

I own a small independent Insurance agency. Ever since our companies have made uploading payments available, we have provided this service to our customers at no charge. I want to start charging a $5 fee to accept payments in-office for company-billed accounts–With the exception of reinstatements and new business.
Over the last 5 years, this has cost my agency a lot of money. Because a half million dollars PASSES THROUGH our account every year, we have been put into a higher tax bracket. My CPA’s fees increase every year because her workload increases. I have one employee who works solely on reconciling month to month statements- 24 hrs/wk at $10/hr.
I don’t want to explain ALL of this to my customers, and I know they like to stop in to pay every month.
What do you consumers out there think? What if I posted a sign with the eff. date for this change, and gave a simple explanation that it costs us too much $? What can I say to make them understand I’m not just trying to make a buck?

My agency charges $7.00 and we collect only for on time payments. I am aware of other agencies that charge up to $15.00. i honestly try to direct my client into other directions whether it is to pay via their website, via phone, or mail. If the options are limited with their carrier than I will collect it in office.

I am writing a paper about a fictitious organization. The organization is a life insurance agency. I need to find out what current moral and ethical issues life Insurance Agencies or agents face? Can anyone help, ideas? examples? anything?

Many life insurance agents lack moral and ethical values when dealing with a client. They sell very expensive life insurance policies which are whole life or universal life insurance. Most clients don’t have lots of money, so they can only afford small coverage and pay high premiums for it. Do you know that nearly 60% of people who own individual life insurance say they need more coverage? Some agents misrepresent the product as an investment or a savings plan, which is clearly isn’t. No where in a life insurance policy says this policy is a savings plan. It is an insurance contract. Consider life insurance agents as sales people. They only care about their commissions versus the client’s needs.

At the company I work for, which is Primerica, they sell term insurance only. Term insurance is inexpensive, therefore the client can get the right amount of coverage for a low price. Before selling life insurance, I explain to them how life insurance works and the theory of decreasing responsibility. Then I find out how much coverage they need using the financial needs analysis. My company also helps client 8eliminate debt and reach financial independence. As you can see, the difference between life Insurance agents and myself is that I educate clients and find out how much coverage they need.

Bottom line is that the life insurance industry generally lacks moral and ethical values. I have seen many clients where their life insurance policies makes no sense for them to have. What’s even worse, many people don’t even read their policies or understand how they work. I had one client who was 35 years old, single, had 2 kids, and has a mortgage. She had a whole life insurance policy with $30k in coverage. If she dies tomorrow, how would $30,000 help her kids and pay off the mortgage? She was paying about $40/month for it. I replace that policy with a 20 year term and gave her $350,000 coverage. She only pays about $25/month. $15 less per month and 10 times more coverage. I don’t know what the previous agent was thinking, but he totally ignore her needs. This is a common thing I see when I sit down with clients. They have life insurance, but they don’t have enough coverage.

Some clients I dealt with were lied by their previous agent because the agent said that their life insurance policies is a savings plan. I had a client that had 5 universal life insurance policies on the family. One on himself, one on his wife, and one for each child. The agent said the one that he has and his wife has are retirement plans and the life insurance on his kids are college savings plan. By law, it is illegal to represent the product. I hope this guy lose his license and goes to jail. This client was totally pissed off after I explain to him how life insurance works. What I did was replaced all these policies with one term policy. I did not sell 5 term policies. I only sold one term policy that covers the entire family. I then setup a Roth IRA for the husband and the wife and open 529 plans for the kids. The client was very happy on what I was able to do for his family and for exposing the truth about the previous life insurance policies he had.

Because of the great work that I do and that Primerica does, majority of Life Insurance agents hates us. Their only way of getting revenge is by going on the internet and putting up lies about the company. They say the company is a scam or that Primerica life insurance is the most expensive life insurance out there. These claims made by these people have no truth behind them or any evidence to back their claims. As you are aware, the internet is unregulated and anyone can say anything, no matter how outrageous their claims are.