Today I thought I might traverse the boundaries between language, morals and spirituality. In the last 15 years, I’ve noticed a disturbing increase in the amount of unscrupulous and downright unethical actions of individuals within the insurance claims arena in attempts to justify making a profit via a loss. Sometimes it’s an insured being “opportunistic” with questionable damage, other times it’s a PA or attorney overinflating an estimate with premium grade replacements (as in using a category of Custom-Built Cabinetry when you know good and well it came off the shelf at a big box store), or adding more labor charges to items that are already included in the estimate. Perhaps a refresher course on the true definition of indemnity is needed, but today I want to focus on integrity.
The word INTEGRITY is derived from the Latin, integritatem, which pertains to wholeness particularly as it relates to purity or moral uprightness. Over the years, the word has been defined more along the lines of being good or trustworthy. Now then, jumping from Latin to Greek, the word that talks about that same wholeness is ὅλος (HAH-loss), meaning the complete is always greater than the individual parts that make the whole. A good example of the use of ὅλος is when the apostle Paul wrote to the members of the church at Thessalonica, “The God of peace sanctify you wholly.” That sanctification was not meant for just the pastor or the 
elders, but for EVERY MEMBER….wholly. By the way, while this is unrelated, it’s a good time to bring up the fact that when the same apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians to “put on the whole armor of God,” this was a completely different word. It was, in fact, a combination of words, πανοπλία (pan-uh-PLEE-uh) that means every weapon. But I digress, and I’m not attempting to preach a sermon today, so back to Integrity!
Since the 14th century, when the word integrity was first used in print, the definition has spanned the dictionaries as “Honest…Strong moral principles…An unimpaired condition.” However, I fear that the focus on wholeness has fallen along the wayside. In the purest sense of the word, you cannot have integrity if that goodness or trustworthiness doesn’t permeate the entire person or company. Mind you, I realize that’s a pretty tall order, but when an individual or a company is deliberately attempting to do something wrong, then it doesn’t matter how you twist the words or spin the yarn…wrong is wrong. Period.
If we, as an industry, are to salvage what dignity we have left among the public opinion, then we have got to return to a wholeness of both moral and ethical correctness. As adjusters, it means being fair to both the insured and the insurer. It means taking a stand against deliberate attempts to cheat the system. It means not being ashamed to stand in the gap and openly confess your intention to do what’s right, even when the “opportunistic” individuals of the world try to steer your course in the opposite direction.