What did PC Financial Insurance do ? Not really much in the general financial sweep of things these days. It discontinued its Auto Insurance business. However, PC Financial did not inform its customers of the fact. No calls, no emails, no contact whatsoever. The only way I discovered the fact was because I wrote a note on my insurance policy stub – and noticed that my policy was expiring at the end of this month and it would not last into May as I expected it to. So I made a call….What really galls me is that a company that I have paid amply well to provide a service – would discontinue that service and not contact me as customer in due course so I would have the time to change auto insurance providers. Thanks Presidents Choice.
But also thanks Presidents Choice for providing the quintessential example of what is wrong with North American Financial Institutions. The number one problem in North America is that Financial Institutional greed now ranks first, second, and third well ahead of fiduciary trust for clients who have entrusted themselves and their dollars to the Finance company’s good graces. In short customers are now consistently on the short end of the stick as regards Financial institutions – just check with your bank account statement if you need further proof.
I, like the general populace, have been tolerant of the fact that Financial firms primarily in the US but extending to the rest of the World have played fast and loose with moneys entrusted to them and a)driven the world into a back breaking recession, b)have reduced hard earned savings by a factor of 20-60% depending on circumstances, c)many of those same institutions have cried Moral Hazard, Moral Hazard – the World’s Finances will fail unless you bail us out and d) by their subsequent actions have said “Who? Me ? Responsible for this mess? Not on your life and don’t you dare touch our compensation schemes or try to regulate us, thank you very much.” I suspect before an energy policy and taming the Health crisis, the Obama administration needs a whole new vision for US Financial Institutions – and the critical goal will be to reduce greed and put Fiduciary Trust back on top as the primary aim for all Financial Institutions.