What insurance companies can do to improve Spanish translations

Progressive insurance companies are focusing on developing the infrastructure necessary to capture the rapidly growing and evolving Hispanic market, often beginning with the dissemination of materials in Spanish. Unfortunately, the development of effective Spanish-language materials is hampered by the fact that insurance companies are still struggling to improve contract comprehensibility in English. In their attempts to control readability, most states require insurance companies to issue readable and understandable policies. Translators' abilities to generate concise and accurate translations ultimately depend on their understanding of underwriting principles and practices, as well as their skills in avoiding literal translations. Because of the inherent liability associated with undecipherable, ambiguous translations, as well as their negative effect on corporate image, it is important to recruit translators who possess the aforementioned expertise.