Posts Tagged ‘ UnumProvident ’

In View of Past Misdeeds, Unum is Playing it Smart

September 21st, 2009. By Hunter West

It’s time to give credit where credit is due: for a corporation oft-painted as a villain, Unum Provident is one smart company. 

Unum Provident has been dragged through the mud in recent years over various charges and allegations that the company goes out of its way to deny legitimate disability claims. A claim, after all, is a drag on an insurer’s bottom line. The fewer claims an insurer is required to process, the less money it has to pay out while premium revenue remains a constant. 

Thus, there are basically three ways to improve the performance of an insurance company: sell more policies; reduce the number of claims, or any combination of the two. 

All you hear about are the horror stories from policyholders who have allegedly been cut down at the knees by a seemingly uncaring and unfeeling insurer. However, any corporation will tell you that the road to profitability is paved with cost reductions. There isn’t an insurer worth its’ salt that doesn’t cast a wary eye every time a claim is made against a short-term disability (STD), or long-term disability (LTD) policy. Unum Provident is no different. 

If insurers have been cast as villains, so too are a handful of policyholders who really do try to take advantage and pull a fast one on their insurer by making a claim for disability when they are, indeed quite healthy. 

Be that as it may, Unum Provident—easily a global leader in the provision of insurance products—is doing a lot of things right, in spite of what its critics are saying. You can’t have 11 profitable quarters in a row without some degree of savvy. 

Here’s what Unum Provident is doing well…  Read the rest of this entry »

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