Stories that Help You Sell Insurance

Rough Notes, Jul 2004 by Tinley, H L

Rough Notes magazine, December 1949

AS SAM ANDKBSON hurried up his front ateps thnt night, he was stopped by the piercing scream of his neighbor. Spinning around, he saw his own driverless car rolling backwards down the hill. With Anderson in hot pursuit, the car traveled two blocks, jumped the curb, knocked down 45 feet of picket fence, removed a aet of porch steps and came to rest aquarely across the flower garden of a highly irritable grass widow of RO. The owner of the garden came boiling out of the house about the time Anderson came panting into the yard and the two met head-on rounding the back of the qar. She was up first, and started to work on poor Anderson with the only thing she had handy, her shoe, Anderson told mo, as the adjuster for his insurance company, that ho went out of there as fast as he camo in only this time on nil fours.

His car sat in the good lady's front yard for 7 days, It took me that long to have the fence repaired, the ruts in the yard filled and the garden replanted. Not until evory thing had been done to her satisfaction, could I have the tires repaired nnd drive the esr nway, She had a mind of hor own, and I received a good piece of it before ehe let me move that car.

Company Stands In Your Shoes

When you purchase an Automobile policy the Insurance company agrees to protect you-to "stand in your shoes" so to speak-should you become involved in difficulties similar to those of Sam Anderson, If your negligence results in a loss to another, your company pays. If any legal action is brought against you, whether you are right or wrong, your company hires the attorneys and pays all the bills for your defense, If a judgment is rendered against you by the court, the company pays to thg limit of the policy.

Your insurance adjuster is thg eyes and ears-yes, and the heart of your insurance company. he sees people at the peak of their emotions. What they describe to him is usually a high point in their life-an accident resulting in injury or death or causing property damage that may involve a financial loss of disastrous proportions. The complications of modern living bring everyone to the scene of an accident sooner or later, either as a victim or a witness. Evaluating the reactions of those involved and determining the dollars and cents value of the damage is the job of the adjuster.

Probably his hardest job is determining the value of a bump on the head or scar on the face. If an attractive girl, aged 20 and unmarried, is scarred she stands a much better chance of collecting more from the insurance company than would her twin sister who is married. The courts fear her chances of future marriage have been impaired, and the one causing the scar-or his insurance company-can be made to pay accordingly. Probably this is justice ; however it can be pushed to fantastic lengths.

Unfortunately, you don't have to be wrong to be sued. You can sue anyone any time and anyone can sue you. Whether you will collect or not IB up to you and your attorney, However, like a press agent, an attorney -for a fee-will bent your drum and a good attorney can make a lot of noise.

Massachusetts was the flrst state to pass the law requiring every automobile owner to have Liability insurance or prove financial responsibility, This created a real headache for insurance companies. Insurance automatically put into the hands of all juries $5,000 to $10,000 for judgments, and as people love to spend other people's money and juries are no exception, business boomed in the legal mill. Individuals no longer laughed off small claims. They pressed them, often with the help of the one causing the damage.

An Auto Claim Racket

I was working in Massachusetts shortly after the law passed, and the results were spectacular. A "victim" and ft "witness" would work together as a team. They would select an UIH frequented street, wait until dark, get a license number from a passing car, then go to work. The "victim" would lie in the street while the "witness" yelled for help exclaiming to the world in general that his friend had been struck by a hit and run driver, "Friendly" medica) experts would be used at the trial end

By H. L TINLEY

Iniurance Supervlior, Farmers National Co., Omaha, Nebraska