Over the years, Hollywood has woven life insurance into movie plots on numerous occasions, almost unanimously depicting the insurance industry and agents negatively. Insurance fraud schemes, murder plots to collect insurance proceeds, and evil corporations denying benefits to policyholders are just a few common uses of insurance in movie plots. The purpose of this article is to review an extensive list of movies for their portrayal of insurance agents and companies, and examine the fairness and accuracy of such portrayal.
Movie Assumption #1 – The Insurance Industry is Unethical.
It is almost an unwritten assumption in movies that everything and everyone connected to insurance is immoral, or even evil. Insurance companies or their agents almost always play the antagonist role. Consider the following movies:
The Rainmaker (1997) – When the parents of a 22-year-old boy dying of leukemia file a claim with insurance carrier “Great Benefit”, the company denies the claim, and in doing so, denies him the bone marrow transplant he needs. Damon’s character helps the family take suit against Great Benefit in a bad faith case, but they don’t budge on their denial, and the boy dies mid-trial. Viewers get the sense that this doesn’t just happen at Great Benefit, but across the insurance industry.
In reality, denial of claims is a big problem with medical insurance policies. According to EmaxHealth, From 2002 through June 30, 2009, the five largest insurers operating in California rejected 31.2 million claims for care – 21 percent of all claims. Insurance representatives, however, will claim that most of these denials are due to claims forms being filled out inaccurately, and that eventually, most of these claims do get paid.
A Little Trip to Heaven (2005) – Forest Whitaker plays an insurance adjuster who discovers what may possibly be a couple engaged in identity theft, murder, and life insurance scams. His job is to uncover any fraudulent activity, and protect the company’s investment. In at least three separate scenes, he is shown in his office negotiating a payout with the beneficiaries. On all three occasions, he is able to provide evidence of why their claim is not valid, and offers them a substantially lower payout.
The problem I have with this movie is that it makes it look like the insurance carrier is out to rip everyone off, and will do everything they can to deny a claim. The truth is that life insurers paid out more than $56 billion in death benefits in 2007, according to LIMRA, which was more than 98% of all death claims. In truth, insurance fraud is prevalent even in the life insurance industry, but life insurance carriers investigate very few claims as portrayed in “A Little Trip to Heaven.”
If the policy was issued less than two years from the date of the insured’s death, your typical claims representative will collect the death certificate, make sure it matches the social security number of the deceased insured, and will perform a “next of kin” phone interview. They will also collect medical records to be sure the insured did not falsify any information on the application.
Additionally, if the death certificate reads the cause of death as being accidental or due to homicide, the claims rep will call the police to confirm the accidental death, or in the case of homicide, that the beneficiary is not a suspect. At this point, if everything looks good, the benefit is paid out. It’s not unless something isn’t adding up that they may send out a character like Forest Whitaker’s for further investigation. Yet, the movie makes it appear as though every insurance company does this on every claim. After the policy has been in force for more than two years, though, the insurance carrier has to pay out the full amount, even for suicide.
The Apartment (1960) – This Oscar winning film is a classic portrait of the corporate world – the insurance industry in particular – acting immorally. It shows an insurance clerk trying to get ahead in a company with 30,000 employees. How do you do that? Simple, lend out your apartment to the top dogs so they have a secret place to bring their mistresses.
The Incredibles (2004) – Even Mr. Incredible (commonly known as Bob Parr) works for an insurance company, Insuricare, whose boss discourages him from paying on claims. After giving in to one benefits claimant, his boss, Mr. Huph, pulls him aside and says, “Parr! You authorized payment on the Walker policy? … I don’t wanna know about their coverage, Bob! Don’t tell me about their coverage. Tell me how you’re keeping Insuricare in the black!” In the real world, claims departments of insurance companies don’t treat every claim with a rubber-stamp rejection, not even health insurance companies.
Movie Assumption #2 – Insurance Agents are Boring, Rude, and Unhappy.
Groundhog Day (1993) – This Bill Murray classic features one of the funniest characters of all time, Ned (Needle-Nose) Ryerson, who hounds Bill Murray’s character to buy life insurance. Ned is a life and property/casualty agent who plays the stereotypical annoying insurance agent. This is the guy who talks about insurance with people he just met at parties, football games, church, and funerals. Ned’s pestering knows no social boundaries. Click here for YouTube video of Ned Ryerson – Annoying Life Insurance Agent from Groundhog Day.
In reality, I meet very few agents like Ned. Agents like him come from large insurance companies who train their agents to take advantage of social situations. They are taught to be marketing themselves all the time. It’s probably because of this stereotype that a lot of agents these days almost try to be polar opposites of Ned, and try to take an educational approach to sales, rather than using pushy sales pitches. But there are definitely a lot of insurance agents out there that rub people the wrong way. I was recently told by a client that I was the first insurance agent he ever met that he liked. My client is 56.
The Truman Show (1998) – Jim Carey’s character finds out that his whole existence is a sham created for a television show. Everything in his world is deceivingly perfect, including his wife, friends, house and, of course, his job as an insurance clerk.
Fight Club (1999) – The main character (Edward Norton) is an insurance professional who is sick of his dead-end, white-collar corporate career, which prompts him to join a club where friends get together to beat the daylights out of each other.
And Finally – A Few Favorite Flicks Containing Life Insurance in the Plot
Double Indemnity (1944) – This is a Billy Wilder classic film, based on a woman who persuades her boyfriend to kill her husband, after having him take a big life insurance policy. The death needed to look accidental, though, so the policy would pay out double the death benefit, since it had a double indemnity clause. Since her boyfriend is an insurance agent for Pacific-All-Risk, he should know how to dupe the system, but investigator, Barton Keyes, eventually catches on.
The problem with this plot is that, once again, it’s not usually an insurance investigator who solves a crime in real life. It’s the police. If this case happened in real life, the wife and husband would have gotten the money, since the autopsy and police investigation both pointed to an accidental death. At this point, the insurance company pays the benefit; it doesn’t send out an investigator.
Alias Jesse James (1959) – This is a Bob Hope western comedy where Hope’s character, a life insurance agent, sells a $100,000 policy to outlaw Jesse James, who writes T.J. James on his application. Jesse James describes himself as “well known in the banking and railroad industries”. When Hope’s boss finds out, he is charged in finding Jesse James to return the policy to him, and help protect James before anything happens to him.
I love this movie, but this would never happen. All life insurance applications ask about your occupation. If you said you’re a train and bank robber, the company wouldn’t issue a policy. But if you lie and die within two years of the policy, like in a gun fight, the insurance company would be off the hook since a material misrepresentation was made on the application. In addition, the policy could be rescinded without having to return the policy to Mr. James.
The Big White (2005) – This movie is about an insurance fraud scheme conjured up by travel agent, Paul Barnell. When he finds a dead body in the snow of the Alaskan mountains, he tries to play it off as though it is the body of his missing brother, and collect the proceeds of his $1 Million life insurance policy. This is another case of where the one committing fraud almost gets away with it, since he fools everyone, but then the insurance claims adjuster comes in and figures it out.
Generally speaking, I think insurance gets a bum rap in Hollywood. While some agents may be a bit rude or pushy, and some health insurance carriers deny too many claims, the insurance industry is an integral part of our lives, and in most cases companies deliver what they promise. I’ve personally known families who lost their homes in the San Diego wildfire in 2003, who have long since been living in newly rebuilt homes, paid for with proceeds from their property insurance companies. I also know several life insurance clients who have come to me after a friend or relative died, and they saw how the life insurance proceeds helped the grieving family. Moving forward, I’d like to see Hollywood to stop demonizing the insurance industry. I think it’s irresponsible, and not to mention, bad for my business!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t get it why most movies portray insurance clerks or the job itself is boring. I think any job is boring if you choose to make it one.
This is quite and extensive list, and one that really sheds light on how Hollywood has managed to make something as essential and as advantageous as insurance something be wary of. I guess it really is up to insurance companies to eradicate these wrong notions.
In my opinion, it’s a matter of what plays well to the public…essentially it comes down to a populist message together with the key ingredient of “conflict” in any well written script. It’s just a really lazy story line that always seems to capture the public interest. “Huge insurance company tries to take advantage of small town 85 year old widow and gets their teeth handed to them by the small town, recently divorced and usually drunk DA who gives a damn”. If an insurance claim goes well, and it’s a smooth, seemless experience…it’s boring. Who’s gonna watch THAT movie? Unfortunately, the insurance industry ends up damaged by the need to sell movie tickets to our entertainment starved society. Whatever is over the top dramatic will likely do well. Whatever actually portrays true life will get roundfiled. I agree that insurance companies and their employees, by and large, try very hard to do the right thing. And they certainly will live up to the legal contract that the consumer purchased, or face the appropriate gov’t regulator’s steep fines and sanctions, etc.