Incentives work. Trust me, I use incentives all the time to get my three year old to sit still, eat his dinner, and stop asking me “why?” So why don’t you ever see crop insurance agents incentivizing clients with bargains on premiums?
Incentives on crop insurance rates, no matter how small, are not allowed. In the crop insurance world such incentives are called “rebates” and offering rebates is illegal under the Federal Crop Insurance Act and Nebraska statutes. 7 U.S.C. Sec. 1508(a)(9) and Neb.Rev.Stat. 44-361
To most, the term rebate means a refund of a certain portion of the price you paid on a specific item. However, the federal government and Nebraska define “rebate” more broadly. For purposes of selling crop insurance the term “rebate” extends to “any benefit (including money, goods or services for which payment is usually made), discount, abatement, credit, or reduction of the premium named in the insurance policy and any other valuable consideration or inducement not specified in the policy.” Standard Reinsurance Agreement Pg. 7.
So don’t expect your agent to be offering you any discounts or deals on your crop insurance premiums when you sign up this year. More importantly, be leery of any agent who does as accepting an incentivie may affect the validity of any subsequent crop insurance claim.
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