(Question from a member of the audience regarding fraud by insurance
company representatives.)
(Braga's response)
Yes, but they're just people. They're not saints, and there are people
on both sides. Actually, if you think about it, the person is being asked
to wear two hats. You can't serve two masters at the same time in the same
transaction. You really can't do it. Your integrity can't be divided into
two. You think it can, because maybe you're dealing with someone who isn't
knowledgeable and maybe it's not up to you to tell that person how to deal
more effectively with you. So you try to have that person feel that they're
getting a good situation, but you're still protecting your company. You're
still going back to your company and saying that you represented their interest
in that transaction and make them feel very well about how it came out.
That's the problem. Trying to be an agent to both parties in the same transaction.
That's wrong. Eventually that has to stop. In all other aspects of our
life that's stopped. You don't see it in law with attorneys. A defense
attorney and a plaintiff's attorney are separate. You would never put those
two together. That one person would never represent both sides. We just
haven't done it yet in insurance. It's been so long that we've accepted it
this way, that no one wants to bother to undo it. But it has to be undone,
eventually.
(Another question from a member of the audience regarding fraud by insurance
company representatives.)
(Braga's response)
I have a Web site that has a forum. I started it with the idea of trying
to get a dialogue going, having to do with authority. But a lot of other
things have come into that forum, and one of the interesting things I've
found is people who have been in the business..brokers, agents, they make
statements through their own personal experience of corruption, or fraud,
or collusion, or all kinds of things in the industry itself. Even though
that's not mentioned in the contract. Even though it very rarely gets publicity.
It's as if one side is left out of the picture, but it goes on, and it's
documented and people give testimony to it. I see it right on the
forum, and several people have come forward with that kind of information.
But it's not a big surprise to me. We more or less have to prepare ourselves.
It's hard to cheat an honest man, and if you've already taken the steps
to understand what you're entitled to and you've done your homework, it's
no more difficult than presenting your taxes for payment. It's probably less
difficult, if you just
get past the veil, just look beyond a little bit.
Thank you.
