Ethical Principles and Practices Affecting Insurance

This course will focus on the ethical issues in the sales process.  Although its principal attention will be directed to an examination of the ethical concerns encountered in sales in the senior market, the principles developed apply equally to all prospects and clients.  Furthermore, while many of the specific ethical breaches examined relate to the sale of insurance and other financial products, the underlying ethical principles also apply to the sale of other products.
As we examine business decisions from an ethical dimension, it will become clear that the gaining of short-term profit and the adherence to ethical principles will sometimes clash.  In plainer terms, cleaving to ethical principles may require the individual to forgo immediate gain.  In the short term, good ethical behavior and profits cannot be equated.  Not so in the long run.
While there are benefits of ethical practices that are far more valuable than profits to many people, long-run profits are enhanced by the individual’s or company’s adherence to ethical principles.  As we will discuss later in this course, the client trust that is developed as a result of consistently ethical professional practices will be repaid many times over in referrals, endorsements and repeat business.

Learning Objectives

Students who have completed this course should be able to:

• Understand the fundamental principles underlying ethical systems
• Discuss the foundations of professional ethics
• Modify the tools and methods you use in the sales process to meet heightened ethical requirements
• Identify specific ethical sales concerns and unethical sales conduct
• Replace in your sales vocabulary those terms that have a high probability of misleading clients
• Recognize the special issues concerning product replacement
• Identify the special requirements involved when working with impaired clients
• Implement a system for ethical decision making