Poor Writing Skills Cost Insurance Industry More Than $1,000,000,000 Annually

PORT WASHINGTON, NY - April 5th, 2005 -  The annual loss to insurance companies due to poor writing skills tops $1,000,000, 000 annually, according to a new report published by The Communication Workshop.

The new report, "Insurance’s One Billion Dollar Headache," attempts to make reasonable estimates of the types of writing issues that are most costly to insurers. These include careless writing leading to bad faith lawsuits, procrastination due to shaky writing skills, inappropriate tone that alienates insureds and prolongs settlements, and vagueness that wastes time as readers seek clarifications.

According to Gary Blake, Director of The Communication Workshop , "The estimates in the report are all conservative. There may be $1,000,000,000 lost annually just stemming from bad faith and other lawsuits in which a claims person’s conclusory, ageist, sexist, racist or other writing gaffes resulted in damages being paid. There may even be almost another billion in loss resulting from SIU departments who are afraid to move forward with solid fraud cases simply because the file has some disastrous accusatory writing in it. As the late Illinois Senator Everett Dirkson once put it: "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon we’re talking about real money."

The catalyst for the report was when Dr. Blake, who teaches claims and SIU writing skills throughout North America, was asked by a Vice President of claims at an A-rated insurer to quantify the return on investment for writing skills training within his department and company.

For a FREE copy of this brief report, or for information about Dr. Blake’s on-site claims and SIU writing seminars, please e-mail: [email protected] or call (516) 767-9590. Blake’s web site is www.writingworkshop.com

CLIENT:
The Communication Workshop
Port Washington, NY  11050

CONTACT:
Gary Blake, Ph.D.
(516) 767-9590
[email protected]