Vets, Beware: Pawlicy's Marketing Strategy Is YOU--With Glaring Omissions

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Vets Beware: Pawlicy Advisor’s Marketing Strategy is YOU–With Glaring Omissions

Pawlicy pays royalty fees to use the AAHA name in nearly all of Pawlicy's marketing materials.The fact that Pawlicy pays AAHA for use of its name is never disclosed in any of Pawlicy's marketing materials.

Veterinary professionals are underpaid, overworked, and in short supply. So, a reliable website where veterinarians can direct their demanding clients with pet insurance questions is one less headache, right? That’s a simplified version of the idea being pushed by Pawlicy Advisor, the company whose website “guarantees” veterinarians and pet owners […]

Pawlicy earns a commission when a consumer buys insurance through links originating on Pawlicy’s website. This information is disclosed and it’s accurate. But there’s a catch: Not every pet insurer participates with Pawlicy Advisor. In fact, the two leading carriers, Nationwide and Trupanion, have never participated. Healthy Paws and Lemonade also do not participate. If a pet insurance market share report from IBISWorld Value Market Research is correct, these four insurers represent more than half of the U.S. pet insurance market. Nowhere in the literature are veterinarians told about the missing carriers, or that carriers can pay more to be featured on the website more prominently.

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TCR on the ground from Trupanion annual meeting in Seattle next week

Reporter's Notebook

This is an excerpt from the first email I wrote to Trupanion founder and CEO Darryl Rawlings on May 7, 2021 following a corporate event during which the company's leaders made themselves available for extensive, live q&A from investors -- and, notably, from the press. After questioning the company's leaders about the just-unveiled 5-year plan, they not only seemed to welcome the scrutiny but encouraged me to attend the annual meeting in person in June. I was floored. This was an insurance company?

In 2021, I attended and participated virtually - and no question was off limits...In spring 2022, I attended and participated in person, in Seattle--again, not as a shareholder, but as a member of the press. Next week, I'll be at the meeting again, live and in person.

According to spokesman Michael Nank, Trupanion’s annual meeting will still be open to reporters this year. However, unlike in the past years I’ve attended, there will be no questions from reporters.

Mr. Rawlings, however, has not made any statements confirming or denying a ban on questions from reporters, and given his public statements on transparency, it’s hard to imagine how he would explain this, especially given that last year, Mr. Rawlings himself nominated me for the “Best Question of The Day” award.
See some of you next Wednesday.

May 17, 2023 - Trupanion CEO talks loss ratios in exclusive interview

No arrests so far in Louisville area vet hospital shooting death; officials decline to release police reports

“No one can understand why she has not been arrested or charged with anything,” Trent “TJ” Taylor’s stepmother Jennifer “Jenni” Taylor told TCR in a telephone interview Sunday evening, referring to a dog owner and client of the Shively Animal Hospital who she says fatally shot her son at point blank range. […]