Finance Monthly April 2020 Edition

changing descriptions of a company’s operations to achieve an unusually low premium. In competition, there is the ethical practice of providing accurate class codes and descriptions, assigning prospective clients the lowest premium possible that is accurately priced. When prospective clients knowingly turn down honest quotes for dishonest ones to the reward and advancement of those unethical practices over ethical ones and to the detriment of the industry’s future - we never fail to feel repulsed. Even worse, after having discovered that another broker would give them a cheaper rate by unethically manipulating the underwriting, some prospective clients then expected us to give them that same rate if we wanted to keep their business. When we exercised our right to refuse to engage in that type of behaviour and explained our position, they told us they would “take their business elsewhere”. Without a tear shed, we replied: “Adios!”. We bade them farewell and didn’t lose sleep over it. This is our number one rule in business: Ethics must always come before success. We must always be willing to walk away from a deal no matter how great the reward may be. Our God-given conscience allows us to differentiate between right and wrong. We must always follow our conscience even if it means choosing a righteous outcome over a favourable one. In the event we lose a particular unethical business deal, we must celebrate our victory because there was dirty money involved in the first place and there is no place for dirty money in the financial world. In these situations, we must remember that we are not only protectors of our clients, but we are also the protectors of their clients too and the people dependent on them (many times their families and kids). If any client needs to file a claim, we want to make sure that claim is covered correctly to protect all clients involved and those dependent on them. Is it possible to be ethical and successful in the insurance industry? There are two dominating types of people within the financial industry: there are people with money and people who wish they had money. The people who wish they had money may be willing to partake in unethical behaviour in order to get money, and the people with money may be willing to do the same to keep their money. Is there a third type? I would like to assert there is, and I believe they are the harder working individuals willing to obtain genuine success and accept profit only at an honest day’s labour. Genuine success is earned, not given or bought, and results in a win-win situation for all parties involved beginning with ourselves and carrying over to the clients we serve. If it turns out that we are not able to do right by ourselves and therefore not do right by our clients, then we shouldn’t sign up for the job of being our client’s protector. Finding another industry requiring less self-accountability may be the first decision we make in the right direction, and one that is certainly respectable. When prospective clients provide false information to an honest broker, there’s not much the honest broker can do. Even the most ethical brokers can be powerless to obtain honest outcomes because providing proper insurance coverage is a multi-step, multi-party process requiring participation from all parties involved. Being ethical and successful is a collaborative effort where one person’s achievement is the whole team’s achievement. Likened to NFL football teams, the quarterback’s efforts alone never got him to the Superbowl. The outstanding teams taking home the Lombardi Trophy did so as a team beginning with excellent coaches leading the offence, additional coaches mentoring the defence and special teams, and- at the very top- the head coaches or the Pete Carroll’s of the world acting as a super mentor and senior leader overlooking the complete coaching cycle. As a Fairbanks Insurance Broker team, we are among some of those head coaches directing the ethical collaboration of our own members, our prospective clients, our carriers’ underwriters, and the job owners to move our whole team to a successful “Financial Industry Superbowl”. Our Fairbanks Insurance team alone cannot give our vulnerable clients the protection they need in their fight for security of mind. We need others within the construction industry to do their part so we can all give the best service we can. Unfortunately, bad mentorship is incredibly difficult to overcome. It creates employees who must be spared like the branches of an infected tree. Bad leadership, on the other hand, results in rotten roots. The whole tree must be uprooted altogether to prevent the infected seeds from spreading and mass-producing into an infected forest. Today, we would like to see the potential for all new brokers to be trained in an honest and ethical manner. We would also like the seasoned, unethical brokers to be reminded that it is possible to be ethical and successful at the same time. We are never without the option to start over in doing the right thing for which it is never too late. Having all powerful insurance brokers united in the same ethical causes would create an unbeatable team that we would want to be a part of. 15 www.finance-monthly.com FRONT COVER FEATURE - ETHICAL INSURANCE