How to Find a Good Insurance Advisor

How to Find a Good Insurance Advisor

When you’re looking for insurance to protect your family, assets, and business interests, it’s a sound financial strategy to have an expert on your side. Luckily, insurance advisors (also known as insurance consultants) specialize in providing clients with their expertise to optimize coverage, seek the most adequate coverage, and find the most competitive rates (and not what just what one company offers) from the entire marketplace.

But it begs the question: How do I find a good insurance advisor?

Typically, an advisor is like a combination of broker and an agent. It is not uncommon to find advisors that have extensive experience working in the insurance industry, choosing to strike out on their own to provide their clients with tailored services.

In this article, we’ll take a look at what traits and expertise you should consider when looking for an insurance advisor.

So, What is an Insurance Advisor?

An insurance advisor is a professional who provides industry-specific guidance and advice for investment in various insurance policies and schemes. For a fee, an insurance advisor essentially becomes part of your financial team to ensure that your interests (property, family, business, etc.) are properly insured. The role of an advisor may seem ambiguous to a lay person, but an insurance advisor performs a multitude of functions, including intermediation between companies, liability assessment, sales, and so forth.

Because of the ever-changing nature of the risks that our world presents  and the flux of the insurance marketplace, having a professional helps find cost-saving measures and coverage options that can be uniquely tailored to your particular situation.

It’s important to note that not just anyone can become an insurance advisor. Many insurance advisors belong to professional organizations and have completed courses that designate them status to provide their services to the general public. Some of these include (but are not limited to):

• Accredited Adviser in Insurance (AAI)
• Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS)
• Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC)
• Certified Insurance Service Representative (CISR)
• Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU)
• Health Insurance Associate (HIA)
• Registered Employee Benefits Consultant (REBC)
• Registered Health Underwriter (RHU)

Reasons to Hire an Insurance Advisor

If you’re still on the fence to decide whether an insurance advisor would be a good fit for your life and business, consider the following reasons to hire an insurance advisor:

• Cost: If you choose to hire an insurance advisor, your insurance costs will actually decrease. As an example, you may have an unnecessary umbrella policy that overlaps with your already-existing coverage. An advisor can find any overlaps or insurance gaps that can ensure that you and your family are covered. Often, insurance companies will sell you unnecessary coverage added to a package, but will leave deliberate gaps that can expose you to covering those costs out-of-pocket beyond just paying a deductible.

• Liability Reduction: An insurance advisor’s job is to advise you (hence the name) on ways to not only find the best coverage, but minimize your liability. For instance, if you are traveling abroad, what precautions should you take for bringing your personal belongings?  What about your particular state’s step-down provision  for unnamed drivers? By asking an insurance advisor, they can guide you to the proper ways of minimizing your liability and maximize your protection.

• Price Negotiation: Most professionals wouldn’t dare to enter a contract without an attorney on their side. The same is true of insurance policies (which are a legally binding contract, btw); an insurance advisor can speak “insurance lingo” to other insurers and underwriters  and explain the particulars of your particular situation without getting railroaded by a commission-based insurance broker looking after their own bottom-line and quotas. If you’ve noticed a difference between insurance premiums, you’ll know that the numbers are fairly arbitrary. And if you need another example, imagine buying a used car with the assistance of a mechanic. Their expertise can be a powerful negotiation tool; the same goes for insurance advisors.

• Independence: Remember that most agents and brokers are tied to a company. Their interest is mainly on job security and promotions. On the other hand, an insurance advisor is independent from a company, and can offer consultations that may be beyond the scope of the particular company you’re deal with. Essentially, their business is built solely on the relationship they have with their customers, having the incentive to offer the widest coverage and the lowest rates.

• Expertise: As we mentioned above, insurance advisors take specialized collegiate-level exams and have extensive experience in the insurance field. Because of the ever-changing insurance laws,  it is nearly-impossible for a person outside of the insurance industry to stay up-to-date. Having an insurance advisor can enable you to make sure you have adequate coverage with changing laws and industry best-practices.

• Time-Saving: Reading insurance policies and their fine print can not only be a headache, but also be a massive time-drain. By hiring an insurance advisor, you don’t have to worry about spending your valuable free time poring over the fine print.

• Claim Payment: Remember, even if you have a legitimate claim, whether it’s an auto accident  or a fallen-tree damage,  your insurer’s number-one priority is to protect their company’s interests, not your interests. You may have trouble getting paid and fighting for coverage that you’ve paid for isn’t always a guarantee. That’s why choosing to hire an insurance advisor can add leverage to your claims and expedite the process  so that you can get back on track quicker. That’s what insurance is for, right?

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Hopefully you can see how hiring an insurance advisor is an invaluable part of anyone’s financial strategy and offers protection for your property, family, and business. Contact the insurance advisors at RiskBlock today  to begin mastering insurance so that you can have the peace of mind that an ins