Tuesday, March 01, 2005

The Forbidden Practices

"Frank is indulging in a forbidden practice known as churning*." Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

Don't be fooled. It's an insurance term. Also forbidden: twisting, holding out, and rebating.

I'm finishing up my continuing education courses for my insurance license renewal. I get this joy once a year, where I find some course completely unrelated to what I actually do, and take an open book exam in order to keep my license active. My employer kindly pays all associated fees, so I can't complain too much. This year I chose a course on Senior Market Sales Ethics. I thought it would be about senior marketing. Imagine my surprise when I found myself reading about marketing to seniors. As in, senior citizens. Sigh, I picked another loser. As an aside, I now feel fully equipped to work ethically with an impaired senior.

*Churning is the practice of excessive trading in a client's securities account for the purpose of generating commissions for the representative.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Believe it or not churning happens a lot to older individuals. I see it quite often. As far as preparing the "churnees" tax return it is a real pain.

Happy to read your page. I check every weekday! Keep up the hard work.

Love,
Nini