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Today I Laughed So I Wouldn't Cry…
My advisor asked:
"Hey Anna, can you just call and get all of Client X’s account values before our meeting?"
"JUST" call?
Oh, sweet summer child.
Here’s what really happened behind the curtain:
Step 1: The Value Vortex
You want “account values”? Let’s make sure you know exactly what the carrier calls it:
Contract Value
Accumulation Value
Balanced Allocation Value
Different words, same meaning…
Looking for Income Values?
Income Benefit Base
Income Value
Protected Income Value
You better speak that particular carrier’s language or your at risk of receiving bad info.
Step 2: MVA (Market Value Adjustment)… More Like Mysteriously Vanishing Accuracy
True story:
We were working on several replacement applications. The product comparison form needed the surrender value and the MVA broken out separately.
Easy enough, right?
So, we called the carrier. The rep gave us the numbers. We trusted them. We moved forward.
Until…
The value letters arrived at the new carrier with the funds — and that’s when we discovered the truth:
The information we were given was flat-out wrong.
Result?
Applications: Botched.
Numbers: Inaccurate.
Ops team: Redoing dealing with corrections (and questioning our life choices).
And here’s the kicker: this wasn’t a one-off mistake. The entire inforce service team at this large, well-known carrier was improperly trained on MVAs.
Yep. You’d never think a team that big could miss something that important… but they did.
Moral of the Story:
If you don’t know exactly what you’re asking for, calling the carrier is like two blindfolded people trying to lead each other through a minefield — with your client’s money at stake.
So no, it’s not “just” calling to get values.
It’s translating terminology, verifying accuracy, and double-checking assumptions — because this job isn't about getting answers... it's about getting the right ones.
Sincerely,
An Ops Pro with a PhD in Carrier Translation & Disaster Prevention