How To Know If Your Insurance Agent Has Your Interests At Heart?

When you’re shopping for insurance, you want to find the best plan that suits your needs. In the first place, you’re looking for insurance plans to have your back in case something unfortunate happens. You don’t want to endure any additional costs for things you don’t need or subscribe to a plan that doesn’t cover all of your needs.

Unfortunately, the insurance agent you’re dealing with may not have your best interest at heart. They may be after their commission fees, which they won’t get unless they hit their targets, making you an unfortunate victim in the process. To avoid being one of their targets, here’s how you can know if your insurance agent genuinely has your best interests at heart.

They’ll Listen and Answer Your Inquiries

First of all, they let you explain your situation. They won’t jump into selling their plans or convincing you to choose their firm. They’ll wait until they’ve developed a full understanding of your situation and needs, after which they’ll start offering their services. During this process, they’ll give you the space to voice your concerns and ask your inquiries, which they’ll patiently answer. 

They Lay Down All Your Options

Once everything is out in the open, they’ll lay down all your options for you. They’ll explain each plan and how it can benefit you according to the situation. They’ll also be honest about the cons of the plans, giving you the full picture without leaving anything out. One thing they definitely do is tell you that “this is the best plan on the market!”. There are countless situations where naive and well-natured people were fooled by this sentence, only to realize, too late, that there are other much better insurance plans out there. What they claim to be the best plan out there may work for others, but it may not necessarily align with your situation, needs, and goals. 

They Offer Different Plans

Reputable insurance agencies have worked with a wide segment of customers. Throughout their work, they’ve developed the needed expertise to customize plans according to different needs. As a result, you’ll be dealing with trusted experts who will offer you a wide range of established plans to choose from. If none of these plans appeal to you, they’ll help you customize a plan that accommodates your budget, coverage needs, and specific situation. Better yet, they’ll offer financial and life-planning consultation services to help you make the right decision. 

They Don’t Pressure You

Trustworthy insurance agents understand that, for some people, getting insurance is a huge step. It’s normal for the individual to need to take their time and space researching all their options and weighing the pros and cons of each – and that’s something a good insurance agent will accept and even encourage. They won’t pressure you to make the decision on the spot, whether by telling you it’s the best you got or that the deal is about to expire so you have to make your decision on the spot. They won’t try to upsell you new coverage and policies you don’t need in addition to the plan you actually need. If that happens, it’s probably only a sales pitch and you should get wary of them. 

They Don’t Object to Legal Protection

If there’s something that can scare insincere insurance agents, then it’s a lawyer having your back. After all, lawyers are well-versed in the tactics of insurance companies and they’re some of the very few who can call them out on their games. If you find an insurance agent trying to convince you against lawyering up, claiming that a lawyer’s fees are too much or that you’ll get more money without a lawyer, then you probably shouldn’t trust them. That’s especially necessary for car accident claims for which your vehicle has sustained certain damage. They may be trying to give you a settlement less than what your damage is worth, and you’ll definitely need a lawyer to get the full picture. 

They Don’t Use Your Emotions

Finally, good insurance agents won’t use your emotions against you. They won’t pressure you into subscribing to a plan by playing on your emotions or emotionally-manipulating you in any other way. That doesn’t mean they can’t be sympathetic, but if they start asking you about how your children will survive without this plan or how you can afford healthcare in case of an accident, then that’s a glaring red flag that you should run. 

Most of us seek insurance agents to protect ourselves from the worst-case-scenarios. Unfortunately, there are times when we need to protect ourselves from insincere insurance agents long before we can encounter such unfortunate situations. That’s why it’s necessary to look for the signs that point towards whether or not they have your best interests at heart.