nGInsights: Are ethical standards generational?

I “teach” ethics. I’ve taught ethics classes hundreds of times to thousands of insurance professionals from every segment of our industry. I teach it because many state CE laws require them to take it so it works out great for me. I get paid to say things like this: “You are required by state law to take ethics training. How does that make you feel?”

I’ve heard hundreds of people tell me why they think us insurance folk have to take ethics. And these discussions can turn into shouting matches. At a recent class, an agent from Georgia filibustered about how Ethics is regional and that people become more reptilian the farther north they reside and that he has proof. Another agent in the same class – a transplant from Jersey – fired back that he never knew people to be unethical until his career “forced” him below the Mason-Dixon line. It was fantastic theatre.

I just got off another road show, and yes, there were ethics classes involved. The reason I’m writing about this is because, once again, the common theme surfaced. I’ll call it the “ethics is a generational thing” theme. It’s the one them that resurfaces in every single class in every single city in which I teach.