Exclusivefocus Summer 2012.pdf - National Association of ...

fact, few of them even bothered to returnmy voicemails or respond to my emails.I even asked if perhaps they would considerpostponing termination a month orso in order to make it through the Holidaysfor my family’s sake. But once again,I was greeted with either no response ortold nothing could be done.In short, I was being terminated, andunless I hired a lawyer, which I could notafford, November 30th would be my lastday as an Allstate agent. By September Ihad resigned myself to the fact that therewas no hope for my business. Meanwhile,my business partner was destroyingmy livelihood and was all set to stealthe customer base I had built up. Theyhad tarnished my name by placing a terminationfor cause on my U5, which anyfuture employer could access. In short,my business experienced corporate sabotagedelivered at the hand of my businesspartner.Facing seemingly insurmountableodds, I started to look for a new job. Thisdidn’t go well considering the hard jobmarket and the fact I had to disclose tofuture employers that I was being terminatedfrom Allstate due to poor production.I also started the process of shuttingdown my agency and began liquidatingsome assets. Ironically, I terminated theVUL that I just increased because I knewI would no longer be able to make thepayments. Moreover, my policy as wellas my other variable business had alreadybeen transferred to another agent. Ofcourse, by cancelling the policy, I lost everythingI had paid into the VUL overthe years due to the surrender charge. Iguess this worked out to be a little extra“bonus money” for Allstate!Like any good agent, I had built astrong relationship with many of my customers.Because Allstate does such a badjob of integrating customers with newagents, I wanted to give my customers aheads up that I would no longer be withAllstate come November 30th. I didn’twant them coming to my office and beingsurprised to find my doors locked. Idid this as a courtesy to my customers,who I love and respect, unlike my greedybusiness partner who only sees them asdollar signs. I also destroyed or gave away$500 to $1000 worth of Allstate promoitems – everything form coffee mugs tobusiness cards – which I had purchasedover the years. But Allstate had a trick upits sleeve and these two acts would comeback to haunt me…Allstate’s new trick….ReaffiliationAbout 15 days before I was to be terminated,I had a discussion about mysituation with a woman from Allstatewho was responsible for collecting mycustomer files. I told her what happenedand she sounded a little alarmed. Sheasked me to send her the “documentation”I had about my case, so I did. Thenext day I received a frantic phone callfrom Allstate Financial asking me to signand return the “reaffiliation” paperworkthey would send overnight to me.Reaffiliation? I was shocked at firstbecause this wasn’t something I was expecting.Then my surprise turned to anger.For months I asked dozens of peoplefor help, but no one bothered to take thetime to review my situation. Then byhappenstance and in the final momentsof my career, someone finally takes aninterest and reviews my documentationand suddenly, they wanted me backagain. Apparently what they saw was socut-and-dried wrong, they had to reversetheir initial decision and get me to reaffiliateimmediately. It’s obvious theyweren’t doing this out of the goodness oftheir hearts, but to cover their own asses!Since, I had already started the processof moving on with my life, I told themI needed to think about it. After mullingit over for a day, I made some minorrequests to resolve the situation for bothparties. Here were my requests:1. That Allstate correct my U-5.2. That Allstate pay me the fair marketvalue for my agency – as determined by athird party – and paid in a lump sum.3. That Allstate pay the pre-paymentpenalty on my loan.After being wrongfully terminatedand having my business practice dis-Summer 2012 Exclusivefocus — 51