My first 6 months sucked, as I was learning the business. I probably earned just about that much, if not less. That said, after hitting my stride, getting my sales style down, finding a couple of niches and sticking to them, business took off. Two years later, I'm a year ahead of my three-year busin...

My opinon is that x-dates don't do any one any good except fill the pockets of telemarketing firms and give mediocre producers "hope" that they are going to land the big one any day now. A good producer or telemarketing firm will get the appointment regardless of the x-date. If you can fi...

The insured needs to hire an attorney and get some good indemnity/hold harmless language in the contract between the building owner and the contractor. Then, collect a COI from the contractor showing the building owner as additional insured on the CGL, and showing Work Comp in place. An umbrella wit...

Scott, Agree with you completely. The problem is that most agents are not educating their insured's on the dangers of under-valuation, coinsurance penalties, blanket coverage, deductible choices, etc. Today, I'm sending a quote that is higher than my competitors, but I fully expect to win, per the ...

Scott, Agree with you completely. The problem is that most agents are not educating their insured's on the dangers of under-valuation, coinsurance penalties, blanket coverage, deductible choices, etc. Today, I'm sending a quote that is higher than my competitors, but I fully expect to win, per the i...

Like Miguelito said, refer this guy to a Great West appointed agent in CA. If you're appointed to Great West (like us ), you are committed to trucking.

Trucking risks are a breed of their own.

Our agency does specialize in trucking (Great West appointed, several STR desiganations). We write over 100 trucking companies/fleets, from owner-operators to 1,000+ power units. Sand and gravel can be VERY tough, but Acuity is by far the best standard market we have found for this type of risk. The...

Try OneBeacon. We have a few farm policies with them that have small personal/commercial operations such as: a winery; a welding shop; and a barn where the insured builds race cars.

I'm on the flip side...I am an independent agent and part-owner of a business unit at a cluster agency that primarily focuses on commercial lines. We have a personal lines division with two dedicated CSR's for my business unit. When I started out, I did a 2-week Hartford School of Insurance program....

Lloyds may be your only options. International Placement Services, Inc. (ISPI) has a good EQ program through Lloyds, but per another poster, the construction/age/etc. will make the biggest impact on rates. They consistently get me better rates on apartment complexes than any other wholesaler...they ...

I target a few specific niches, and joining local trade groups, sponsoring their events and showing up at all of them to network has paid dividends many times over. Six weeks after joining one trade group, I wrote a $150k commercial account. I turned around and invested about 25% of that commission ...

Here in the Midwest, we haven't seen real estate price depreciation like those on the coasts. However, most of my commercial P&C clients are making the same arguments - our carriers increased values by 6% while their market values decreased by 10%+. We are fortunate enough to have an internal lo...

Try the Distinguished Programs (http://www.distinguished.com). No one will beat them on price or coverage, but qualifying can be tough. They do write on New Hampshire and Granite State paper, which are AIG subsidiaries. That doesn't bother me at this point, but it can be a sticking point with custom...

Epic is nothing like TAM (which I'm not a big fan of), so I wouldn't call it a step back at all. It's completely web-based...so you can access anywhere w/out having to go through that stupid desktop login program (Citrix?), which is sloooooooooow. I like working from home when I can, but TAM's curre...

I spoke with a State Farm guy here and got my answer. They have a new inspector in my area, who, unlike the past inspector, may be doing his/her job and actually looks at these properties! The State Farms folks are up in arms about it, as I guess going "by the book" has resulted in quite a...