For the past five years, I have had the opportunity to work as an insurance broker. I would not have thought of this career choice when I was a child at all, but in terms of careers, I really can’t complain. Not only do I get the opportunity to make a difference in many people’s lives, but I also get to work at a desk, which is unlike my siblings who work in construction. Don’t get me wrong, this career has challenges of its own, but I really enjoy the fact that I don’t have to work outside and be at the mercy of the elements. In fact, our latest challenge has been trying to eliminate auto insurance fraud.

As I am sure you know, fraud is a problem in many industries outside of insurance, but for us the number of cases of fraud has a very bad effect: they drive up insurance prices. We try to monitor and be proactive on accounts that we suspect may be making fraudulent claims, but we certainly don’t have our processes perfected, so a few cases slip through.

One of the ways that we have been working in our office to minimize losses associated with insurance fraud is through education. Our parent company has created a large number of training materials to help their staff be educated on signs of fraudulent activity as well as arming them with the knowledge of what to do when there is a possible case of abuse of an insurance policy. By focusing on education they feel that we will be better equipped to handle and resolve potential abuses of the system before they occur.

Over the last year we have seen a dramatic decrease in cases of fraud relating to our auto insurance. Even though we have had great success eliminating many fraudulent claims, we have a long way to go. But our diligence will benefit our customers by allowing us to keep our rates low and affordable for anyone who needs auto insurance, which is a positive outcome for everyone.