Important Reminders When Writing Americo Business
Americo is committed to helping you build your business compliant and ethically. We have compliance programs focused on helping you ‘do the right thing.’ As a licensed insurance agent, you are required by your Agent Agreement to comply with the insurance regulations of the states in which you do business. Please look at your state insurance department’s website for specifics to ensure you do business correctly.
As a representative of Americo, we expect our agents to:
- Conduct business according to high standards of honesty and fairness.
- Provide competent and customer-focused sales and service based on an analysis of the customer’s insurance needs and financial objections.
- Engage in fair competition.
- Provide advertising and sales materials that are clear, honest, and fair as to content.
- Provide fair and expeditious handling of customer complaints and disputes.
Americo will maintain and enforce policies and procedures to reasonably assure compliance, including a system for communicating all company requirements and monitoring sales practices. Agents are expected to uphold these principles and guidelines. An agent’s violation of these guidelines will result in disciplinary action, including, if appropriate, termination of the relationship with the Company.
We urge you to review our Compliance Guidelines and Advertising Guidelines carefully and incorporate the appropriate regulations into your everyday business practices.
Banking Information
- Americo does not accept any Bank Accounts associated with Peer-to-Peer Mobile Payment Applications, such as Venmo, Zelle, and Cash App, as payment methods for premium payments. In addition, we do not accept online-only banks such as Green Dot, Chime, or MetaBank. This will help you keep business inforce and maintain your placement, persistency, help prevent chargebacks, and ultimately, keep more money in your pocket.
- In no instance does Americo allow agents to pay initial or reoccurring premiums for clients from the agent’s bank account. As a result, agents who pay for clients’ premiums could be subject to termination.
Taking an Application
Health Questions
When completing an application for any product, it is critically important that you ask every health question. If you don’t do that, it’s a disservice to your clients, leaving them vulnerable to contestability in the claims process. Please ensure your client understands and answers the questions truthfully so you don’t leave them without the valuable coverage they need.
Tablet Signatures
If you are using our eApplication and select ‘tablet signing,’ the signor (proposed insured, owner, or payor) must sign the application directly using the tablet. Complete signatures are required; more than initials are required. If you are using ‘remote signing,’ the person signing the application must be the person receiving the email. As with the traditional paper process, you cannot sign for the client under any circumstance.
Client Email Addresses / Electronic Policy Delivery
When you complete applications, please fill in your client’s email address. Using your email address can cause a red flag and delay the policy from being issued. Providing your client’s email address will allow us to better service your client’s policies in the future.
Also, when completing eApplications, please verify that the email address is spelled correctly. This will allow the policy to be delivered to your client’s email. If the email address is misspelled or an incorrect email is put in the field, they will not receive their policy electronically.
Note that Electronic policy delivery is the default delivery method on eApplications for simplified issue products. If you do not wish for your client to receive their policy by eDelivery, you must uncheck the option when filling out the eApplicaiton.
Product Eligibility
If your client is declined for one of our simplified issue products, they will not be eligible for any of the other products in the portfolio.
Policy Cancellation
If you receive a request from your client to free look or cancel a policy, as a contracted agent with Americo, it is your responsibility to contact the home office to cancel the policy. Failure to contact us to cancel the policy can result in termination of your contract with Americo.
Use of Gifts and Rebates
If you offer gifts and rebates as an inducement to purchase insurance, please be sure you are up-to-date on your state’s regulations, prohibitions, and limits. Failure to comply with your state’s laws can result in fines. Please look at your state’s Department of Insurance website for more information.