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Pro & Con Reactions To Bobo's Outrage

By Staff Writer

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Pro And Con Reactions To Bobo’s Outrage

To The Editor:

Congratulations to Jack Bobo for his outrage and for speaking out on the “Victim Compensation Fund”! (Feb. 18.)

Having sold life insurance for over 40 years, it seems like only yesterday that during “pre-contract” training we were instructed and taught about life insurance “being in the public interest;” about how life insurance companies invested in government bonds to “help finance WWII;” and that we owed it to our prospects and clients to stress responsibility and family caring!

Having expressed my own outrage to several of my younger peers here in New Orleans, the reaction often was…so?

My General Agent 40 years ago was really my mentor and many of the attitudes and habits that I practice today are a result of those standards introduced to me during that “pre-contract” training. We need more life insurance sales persons like Mr. Bobo. We need more life insurance sales persons talking to families about taking responsibility. We need more insurance people running insurance companies. We need more emphasis on personal responsibility and not just the “bottom line” on financial reports. After all, financial reports are just that and as we have learned by the recent Enron debacle they can show you whatever it is you want to see!

Too often I find myself asking, “Do those people in Washington have any real idea as to what is going on in the real world?” When are we going to get to selling life insurance for what it is–monthly income, education funding, paid mortgages, and on and on!

Harold J. Jones, CLU, ChFC, CFP
New Orleans, La.

To The Editor:

Jack Bobo’s column “Responsibility Should Be Rewarded–Not Penalized” (Feb. 4) misses the point of the Victim Compensation Fund. There is no intent to reward those who were financially irresponsible as some victims undoubtedly were, but to protect the surviving family members. Sure, a family man should have carried adequate life insurance. But if he didn’t, are his widow and small children supposed to be left without adequate funds?
Mr. Bobo’s “outrage” over this fund is misplaced considering that the events of September 11 were unique in our history.

Edward A. Stoeber, JD, CLU, ChFC, CFP
Via e-mail

To The Editor:

I am not a salesman, but I have developed a high regard for those who follow this profession, especially when their sales efforts are focused on meeting a need or solving present and/or future problems. The negative image of sales people comes when they follow the advice of Ray Triplett (as cited by Jack Bobo in his Jan. 28 column), “The first duty of an agent to his client is to sell him or her a policy.” as their primary maxim. When the resulting policy does not serve the client well, the agent image and the policy persistancy suffers.

Walter Gilliland
Senior Health Underwriter,
Mennonite Mutual Aid,
Goshen, Ind.

To The Editor:

“I don’t know why Blazzard & Hasenauer are agonizing over the alleged dearth of information available to CPAs and lawyers about variable products (Dec. 10, 2001). To the contrary, there’s actually too much information. It’s printed in prospectuses which, in a twist of ironic justice, are written by–guess who? CPAs and lawyers.

Gary Duell,ChFC, MBA,
InterSecurities,
Happy Valley, Ore.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Life & Health/Financial Services Edition, March 4, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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