Don't Let the Internet Destroy Your Career 

Author: Jack P. Gibson, CPCU, CRIS, ARM, President & CEO
International Risk Management Institute, Inc. (IRMI) | Posted: 7/7/2021

Insurance is a knowledge business, and it is imperative that you and your colleagues have access to the most up-to-date and accurate information possible to perform your job well. Providing a wrong answer or making a mistake can lose customers, lead to E&O claims, and severely damage your career. Always having up-to-date and accurate information is challenging because insurance concepts and coverage nuances are extremely complex and continuously evolving subjects. 

Like most people, your first impulse is likely to search the Internet for answers to your questions. In searching for any insurance or risk management term or concept, you will be presented with a lengthy list of articles and definitions from a host of sources. Some of this information will be accurate and helpful. However, much of it will be dangerously biased or outdated, and you should proceed with caution! Before using it, here are a few questions you should ask about any free risk management and insurance information you find on the Internet:

     • Who wrote the piece, what are the author's credentials, and what biases might the author have?
     • When was the piece written, and is it still current?
     • On what website was the piece published, and what biases might the organization have?

If you can't answer these questions to your satisfaction, be wary of the content. As an example, assume you find an apparently well-reasoned and insightful article answering an important coverage question applicable to a loss experienced by your insured. The article was written 4 years ago by an attorney and published on the law firm's website. To what degree can you rely on it? Your first concern is obvious: Has a court decision in the intervening years changed the law since the article was written? This situation is possible and something you should investigate if you are unsure.

A second, less obvious, and more important concern should be about possible biases of the author and the law firm. While not always the case, most coverage lawyers either represent only policyholders or only insurance companies rather than take cases from both. As a result, they will have a natural inclination to be biased in favor of one or the other. After all, their purpose in publishing the article on their website is to market their legal services to their target market. If you are working for an insurer, relying on the opinions expressed in an article by a policyholder coverage lawyer could be disastrous. Similarly, an article written by a coverage lawyer who typically represents insurers may not provide the best reasoning to support a policyholder's claim for coverage.

The lesson learned here is to always keep in mind that risk management and insurance content published on the websites of the insurance industry and its service providers has generally been written and published for marketing purposes. The website owner is not likely to have a diligent process for keeping the content up to date and will often allow his or her natural biases to influence the content. In other words, take it with a grain of salt and always seek a second or third opinion on important issues.

Of course, another—and speedier—type of third-party information to consider is found in the reference content published by IRMI and other publishers. Since subscription fees are these companies' source of revenues, professional publishers have much more at stake. Their customers are generally both policyholders and insurers, which reduces the inclination to be biased toward one or the other. Further, since the content is their product, they invest substantially more resources in keeping their content accurate and updated than do those organizations that publish articles simply to attract search engine traffic and market their services. For example, IRMI employs fifteen research analysts – experienced insurance professionals who spend all their time and energy keeping the IRMI library current and relevant for you.
 
If your agency or company subscribes to Vertafore’s ReferenceConnect service (previously called “SilverPlume”), you have access to this very type of reliable subscription content. Next time you need to answer an important and thorny insurance question don’t risk getting a potentially career ending wrong answer from free content on the internet. Sign into ReferenceConnect to get faster, more reliable, and more detailed information from IRMI and any other publishers to which your employer has subscribed.

Lastly, make sure the newer members of your firm are aware they have access to this resource. Include instructions on how to access it in your onboarding program. In particular, coach young people who have grown up relying on Google to instead go to the more reliable subscription content your organization provides for them. 

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