Insurance policies must be written and read carefully. There's a reason why your high school English teacher, whom you fondly referred to as Mrs. GrammarNazi, obsessed about punctuation. As Chris Amrhein explains, the presence or absence of a semi-colon can make the difference between a claim being covered or denied.
And you thought semi-colons were just for emojis. ;)
If you pay strict attention to the rules of grammar, you just might get a claim denial reversed, as the agent in this story did. Think that might win you some customer loyalty?
I've been writing a lot about how policies are not all alike. I can't stress it enough: Insurance policies are contracts, contracts are collections of words, and how those words are spelled, arranged and separated determines how they should be understood. Those who pay close attention will have a tremendous competitive advantage over those who just sell price. No one cares about the price when a claim is denied.
So, dust off your grammar books and your copies of policy forms (you do have them, right?) and have them ready next time one of your clients is denied coverage. These infinitely dull tools may just make you a hero.
Comments