Need Rather Than Greed Drives Insurance Sales

Carla Lazzareschi’s blanket character assassination of insurance salesmen in her “Money Talk” column “Harsh Penalties Lurk Behind 2-Tier Annuities” (Jan. 6) was disappointing.

“Insurance salesmen usually earn higher commissions for selling two-tier contracts than they do for single-tier plans,” she wrote. “So, as you might expect, insurance salesmen are given to singing their praises and glossing over their defects.”

Impugning the motives of an entire profession is reprehensible. There are many of us who sell insurance who put our clients’ interests first and whose prime motivation is not the higher commission. We do not gloss over the defects of higher commission products that do not serve the client.

KURT HIRSCH

Beverly Hills