@danielws: Sorry to hear it. What I find so troubling about purchasing something like life, disability or long-term care insurance is that it suffers the same economic dynamic as shopping for a house or wedding: it’s a very expensive one-off transaction. Sure, you are putting in premiums for a long time but by the time you know it was or was not a good deal, it is too late.

Not only that but the best deals are offered to that demographic taking on the biggest risk: that the insurer will go bankrupt before their services are needed.

I wonder if there is a way to incentivize this industry the way more common retail ones are. For example, if I have a bad experience with a bank, a restaurant or a department store, I can penalize them by withholding future business — and conversely reward them by granting more future business if they are good. Recommendations are rather indirect feedback — and complaints could be considered the cost of doing business if you price your margins high enough.

This is why I would like to see greater standardization of services offered, and price transparency. But it probably won’t happen even with something as tangible as real estate, let alone insurance.