Abstract: This survey is about ethics. Answer honestly in how you would handle each situation. This survey is anonymous and only the result will be posted.

Question 1: You are 2 days from the end of the quarter and you are short policies to make numbers and keep your contract. A household you are working on looks good in every way except for a family relative that lives in the home has a DUI. The relative has access to the other cars and sometimes drives them so you know that you need to rate the driver on the policy, however the rate difference is so high that this person causes major problems with the rates of the other vehicles on the policy. What do you do?

• (50) 35.71% Tell my District Manager
• (49) 35% Report the Agent to the State Office
• (24) 17.14% Contact the Agent who quoted the household
• (8) 5.71% Write the policy with the discount
• (9) 6.42% Do nothing

Comment: This actually happened to me as a Farmers Agent. The client I was quoting was a friend of mine and showed me fliers that were passed out to the whole neighborhood with quotes. He had gotten an actual quote from the agent and it showed a Retirement Community discount. The closest one was 6 miles away. I also checked with Underwriting to see if the home could possibly qualify and it didnt. I notified the DM, who did nothing about it and brushed it off saying.. "that person will get in trouble some day". Asked customer service and underwriters at the state office and nobody cared!! So I wrote it with the discount.

Question 2: You are 2 days from the end of the quarter and you are short policies to make numbers and keep your contract. A household you are working on looks good in every way except for a family relative that lives in the home has a DUI. The relative has access to the other cars and sometimes drives them so you know that you need to rate the driver on the policy, however the rate difference is so high that this person causes major problems with the rates of the other vehicles on the policy. What do you do?

• (26) 18.57% Ignore the relative and write the policy as if they dont live there
• (74) 52.85% Tell the client you cant help them and lose your contract
• (40) 28.57% Issue the policy with the relative to meet the numbers for now and deal with the problems later

Comment: This situation comes up all the time. As a Farmers Agent it is a tough one to deal with because the rates for higher risk drivers are horrible and you lose the business. This is one of the more common causes for you to lose business to other carriers, the inability to place it.

Question 3: Your DM doesnt get along very well with one of his existing agents and hands you a partial list of that agents clients telling you to re-quote them all under the new home policy that came out recently that has lower rates allowing you to cancel and rewrite the policy to your agent code. You really could use the money right now. What do you do?

• (12) 8.57% What a great idea! Free clients!
• (44) 31.42% Politely decline the DM's offer
• (19) 13.57% Tell the DM that he's wrong in asking you to do this
• (17) 12.14% Tell the other Agent about what the DM tried to do
• (48) 34.28% Tell the State Office

Comment: This situation has been reported to us by multiple agents for Farmers. They were given many methods for stealing policies away from other Farmers Agents, even ones that were in their own District!

Question 4: Its year end of the second year of your career program and you've done pretty well for yourself except for being able to write enough life insurance to graduate from the program. You are 5 policies short of your minimum and only have 3 weeks left to get there. Its December, so many of the underwriters are on vacation and its taking close to two weeks to get a policy approved. What do you do?

Comment: If you read Story 1, the end part details how I was short life policies. I unfortunately already ran out of relatives to write life on. My son that wasnt even a year old yet had 3 policies on him. I had 3 on myself. I already hammered my book as much as possible to squeeze every last life policy I could without being a scumbag. In the end, I just threw my arms up and said this isnt for me anymore and let them terminate my contract.

(Essay Answers)

1-28-08 Issue simple term on friends, and family. pay it out of your own pocket for a couple of months

1-28-08 Work diligently to get the contracts you can in front of underwriters and be sure to communicate early and often with the underwriters in advance.

1-28-08 give up

1-27-08 obtain proof of the policies and ask the DM for an extention.

1-24-08 Contact the Life Company and explain the situation to them. I would ask if there is any way it could be handled by the end of the year.

1-19-08 I try as hard as I can to get the 5 policies, but I wouldn't do anything illegal or unethical. That means that if I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of my decision, I wouldn't do it.

1-18-08 I find 5 more policies- even controlled

1-17-08 Ask Nicely

1-16-08 Stat cold calling and still get some of those policies sent in for approval.

1-16-08 work harer to get business to write enough life policies to make my goals

1-14-08 Write simple term

1-13-08 Sign 5 family members for new policies

1-8-08 sell sell sell see what happens

1-4-08 Wait until i am able to contact an underwriter

1-3-08 do my best

1-2-08 Call the life help line and find an underwriter that will help get them issued

12-28-07 purchase leads and quote night and day

12-15-07 quit

12-5-07 start trolling for business at hospitals

12-5-07 you are an idiot. There's a reason that you fell off subsidy within your first 6 months. Go get a job selling over the phone for Geico. (Mod Comment: you as in reference to whom? Personally, I stayed for 1.5 years before bailing out of the program. I'm vastly more successful as an independent now, thank you very much for asking though. Good luck with retention this year with Farmers' Rate increases! Have fun making up for 20% of your client base bailing on you)

12-4-07 Keep selling and don't stop. Constantly contact the underwriters who are available.

11-30-07 You must have really sucked as an agent. If you put half as much time into marketing for Farmers as you now spend campaigning against them, you never would have been at risk of falling of subsidy. MAPS is 40 P+C in 1 qrtr....I wrote 15 this week...seriously, you must have sucked.(Mod Comment: who's "you" by the way?)

11-30-07 Hello! Good Site! Thanks you!

11-26-07 Write 6 kid policies in families where you have life insurance on both parents (one extra "just in case") and pay for the policies yourself. Explain to the parents that you are buying the policies as a "thank you" for their business and explain that in one year they may either pay and keep the policies or let them lapse. Of course, depending on how many of these you do, your lapse ratio will probably suck in a year but that means little other than you'll not be able to get commission advance.

11-21-07 look for new employment

11-12-07 try to get as many as possible before year end

11-08-07 call roy

11-08-07 Shoot up the office

10-30-07 - Bust my butt to secure the policies needed to qualify.

10-29-07 - Cry

10-29-07 - Call my brother and have him bring 5 of his random college friends to my office so that I can write Simple term. I'd probably even go so far as making myself the owner of the policy so I can cancel them after graduation from the career program. I might even go so far as providing beer and pizza and calling it a "Finally finished being extorted by Farmers Party!" (Mod Comment: How do you prove you have an interest in insuring someone you dont know? You'd have to do something like make them all your P/T employees, then offer them to litter the campus with fliers for $50 a piece! Hehe)

10-28-07 - start calling existing clients and friends, offering a referral fee and if must buy some annuall juv policies per DM instructions

10-27-07 - No Response

10-27-07 - buy 3 policies on friends children

10-26-07 - Write 5 policies on myself

10-25-07 - No Response

10-24-07 - No Response

10-23-07 - No Response

10-16-07 - No Response

10-15-07 - No Response

10-12-07 - Do what I did- realize the whole program is rigged and that I was getting screwed over by agents, DMs and the company - and quit.

10-12-07 - No Response

10-11-07 - Contact District Manager and discuss your concerns regarding timeline. Set action plan on how to accomplish goals within remaining timeline.

10-11-07 - try to find five new clients to write their policies in the month of Dec., whether they are behind are not.

10-10-07 - No Response

10-09-07 - No Response

10-09-07 - Test

10-09-07 - No Response

10-08-07 - No Response

10-08-07 - write the dead....

10-08-07 - No Response

10-08-07 - No Response

10-08-07 - No Response

10-07-07 - No Response

9-30-07 - No Response

9-29-07 - No Response

9-28-07 - No Response

9-27-07 - No Response

9-26-07 - Bust my butt to get policies signed then do everything I can to help get them through the underwriters even pull favors. If I don't make it I don't graduate.

9-22-07 - No Response

9-13-07 - No Response

9-11-07 - No Response

9-10-07 - No Response

9-10-07 - No Response

9-07-07 - No Response

9-06-07 - I would try to sell the needed policies, write them up and submit them as normal. If underwriting is unable to issue policies in time, then that is my own fault for not making quota.

9-05-07 - No idea

9-05-07 - No Response

9-03-07 - No Response

8-30-07 - Cold Call, Door Knock, and ask for Referrals

8-28-07 - there nothing you can do

8-28-07 - No Response

8-28-07 - No Response

8-27-07 - No Response

8-26-07 - Question 2: You should add another option. You can exclude the driver from the household with the state approved exclusion form and write the household. If that doesn't work...then lose the business. (mod:Left that option off completely because the question states the person drives the other cars in the HH. If this information was known to the agent you are putting yourself in jepardy even if you exclude them!) Question 3: I would decline, but I believe the DM is in his/her rights to do this. If he has the client and the company's interest. The agent is last. Question 4: Find 5 juvenile polices to write so they will issue quickly.

8-23-07 - Get 5 family members to agree to get life insurance on my expense. Submit and cross my fingers. (mod:Many of us have been down this road, unfortunately the "burn friends and family" outlook cant last forever!)

8-22-07 - beg. (mod:which also sometimes works!)

8-22-07 - No Response

8-21-07 - No Response

8-21-07 - No Response

8-20-07 - I would tell the DM that life underwriting is holding up my career oppertunities. Ask if there is anyway that he could help get these policies through (mod:I'm sure that would work, thats if you walked into the DM's office with 3 completed life apps)

8-17-07 - No Response

8-17-07 - Do the best I can and let God handle the rest. (mod:hehe)

8-15-07 - No Response

8-14-07 - No Response

8-13-07 - No Response

8-12-07 - work harder and expend extra time to get the policies done

8-12-07 - No Response

8-12-07 - No Response

8-11-07 - tell your dm and state office (mod: Tell them what?!)

8-07-07 - No Response

8-03-07 - No Response

8-01-07 - write a few juvies

7-29-07 - buy 5 kids policies on my neices (mod: Been there.. done that!)

7-29-07 - No Response

7-28-07 - Quit this company (mod: Think you're on to something..)

7-28-07 - No Response

7-27-07 - There isn't a damn thing you can do!!!!! Unless God smiles down on you and you can write those five policies as Simple Term for the 24 underwriting turn around time. So without Simple Term, your Christmas Goose is cooked.

7-27-07 - Blow my DM and move on! (mod: I prefer a lower sodium diet myself, but whatever works right!)

7-27-07 - Sell and get approved at least 5 life insurance policies (mod: the point is, you are already behind where are you going to scare up 5?)

7-26-07 - Have the agency contact every client we have about life and ask for referrals. I also mite buy some leads. (mod: Good plan if you havent already hit the existing book too many times for it. Buying leads is a great source, though life leads can be expensive.. it will surely get the job done)

7-25-07 - Fallacious example. You don't "graduate" from the career program, you do have MAPS numbers each quarter. But if you don't make them the last quarter, there is no ongoing subsidy to take away, so it does not matter, except for run to daylight. To semi-answer your question, you go thru your book to see if there is anyone that you have not talked with and/or who did not need life before who would now be a prospect due to a life change such as marriage/baby/etc... Hope you are having fun with your little Jihad. things are going well for me as well! (mod: Sorry, not affiliated with any religion)

7-25-07 - No Response

7-25-07 - No Response

7-24-07 - No Response (mod: Yea, I didnt know what to do either so I quit)