It is said that the teacher learns as much, if not more, than the student. As an instructor with the Florida Association of Insurance Agents, I am living proof of that axiom. One of the most valuable lessons I have learned is that there is the stuff we teach — the “never” and the “always” about office procedures and practices — and then there is the “real world” that agents face every day.

A current course, The Q&As of E&O, has been especially enlightening. The “Questions” posed include: Who are the culprits? What types of errors are they making? Are the errors stemming from new business, renewals, rewrites, or rounding of accounts? How can we know if communication between the producer and the customer service representative (CSR), the CSR and the account manager, or the insured and the staff is clear and understandable? The “Answers” are handled in the form of class discussion using case studies as well as information gathered from E&O carriers, Web sites, webinars, and interviews.

Although people come to the E&O class to get the continuing education credits and the subsequent discount on their E&O premiums, during the sessions they often open up about how things actually happen in their offices. They know how their offices really run, and they start to compare that “real world” process to our “textbook” office-practice suggestions.