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Not Knowing is Okay

Written by Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Feb 12 2010

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I use to know a lot about life insurance. I still do. I didn’t memorize numbers because that’s not the type of guy I am – and because I had computers do that for me.

But my job wasn’t to know all the answers. My job was to find the answers, tricks, and hacks that could give other insurance agents a leg up. I was good at it. I wrote down all the uncommon techniques I could to find a better deal. I soon began beating my bosses.

Eventually, I learned it didn’t matter as much what I knew. What others knew collectively was much more powerful and dynamic. I would always be missing part of the puzzle. I learned so much about life insurance, I knew I couldn’t know it all.

There always seemed to be a better-priced company, one with more aggressive underwriting for a particular situation, better turn around times, a new tweak, or a slightly new product. This will not change. It will keep happening.

Starting a different company

Early on in the development stage of the Clarifinancial, one of the consultants I work with asked me why we wouldn’t try to capture that knowledge and serve it to life insurance shoppers. I explained that the task of creating the answers we could know is daunting, keeping that information up to date would be even harder, the knowledge is incomplete and would always remain so, and eventually someone else would be able to do it better.

Instead of trying to capture that limited knowledge and trying to systematize it, Clarifinancial breaks the system. Okay, sure we have a few rules of the game to make comparing life insurance quotes easy. But we don’t pretend to have any knowledge about life insurance others don’t. (Notice we never say anything like, “XYZ Insurance Company has the best deal for 42 year olds. You should go with them.”)

In fact, it is the knowledge of others that makes Clarifinancial so uniquely powerful. I know the agents who work through Clarifinancial, I talk to them, I see the life insurance companies they are appointed with, I see the quotes they submit, and I know the resources available to them if they need help. Their collective knowledge working for you is more powerful than any single perspective.

What if I’m wrong (again)

But let’s play devil’s advocate for a minute. Let’s suppose that a spreadsheet of life insurance companies could encompass things like underwriting and that all agents really do have the same thing to offer. Now what’s special about Clarifinancial?

Because agents compete against each other, they keep themselves honest, always putting their best foot forward. Because they present their best quote through our impartial and anonymous service, you can compare fairly without snazzy sales pitches. Because we have a few rules, we make comparing easy; we take the “confusing” out of life insurance.

At its core, Clarifinancial is competitive, unbiased, and easy. Even if all that other stuff wasn’t true, you’d still be better off here. Welcome.