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Is the insurance company going to videotape me? You know you can be sure that if you have
a long term disability claim that looks like it is going to be for a long term, like the
insurance company is going to have to pay you, they're going to videotape you, alright.
I've got piles of those videotapes in my office and now DVDs with film and there really isn't
a whole lot you can do about it, but here's clues to know when they're going to do it.
Number 1, they send you an activity log, and they say, "Hey, Bill, the next two weeks,
just write down all the things you do in a day." And that's a pretty clear sign that
for the next two weeks, or some portion of, they're going to be in the woods, in the van,
following you around with a video camera, because they want to match up. They want to
catch you in a lie. "I didn't do anything on Thursday." "Oh, well we got video on Thursday
that you went, took your cat to the vet." Um, deny you claim. The other big clue is
they get really curious about, "when's your next doctors appointment? Oh who's it with?"
"Doctor Smith, he's in Reston." "Ok well let's hire a video team to follow you around to
your doctors appointment, see how you walk, see how you drive," and they're hoping you
go shopping at the mall. They love mall videos, by the way. I've got stacks of people in grocery
stores and at malls trying on shoes or getting the cereal boxes off of the shelf. And so
those are two big clues and unfortunately this is what they do; your privacy is invaded.
So the teaching point here is be brutally honest, don't exaggerate your claim, and if
you're asked to do an activities log or anything else where you're telling folks what you're
doing on a day to day basis, just be conservative and be brutally honest about it.