Farmers Insurance

Your response to industry hot topics.

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atgnut
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by atgnut »

Indymischief all I can say to you is THANK YOU! This is exactly what I have discovered in my almost two years in this scheme. I finally had to give my DM my thoughts because I couldn't take anymore of the pep talks and it felt great. Just the look on his face to know that I could figure this out in such a short time was rewarding enough for me. I take my hat off to you for such a brilliant post. Good luck and I too am in the process of taking the big plunge.
ED3771316
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by ED3771316 »

Inrefrence to the 800 LB weight, any stories out there about that? Win? Lose? Equitible Arrangement?
gaslamp
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by gaslamp »

So many happy Farmers agents! If you're interested in being a commercial producer, please email me. We pay 50% Commission and 50% Broker Fees. A good producer should make between $50-$90,000 their first year. :lol:

resumes@gaslampinsurance.com
JBURLY
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by JBURLY »

It's all about running your business properly. I'm 48 years old & my wife hasn't worked for the past 16 years, we have 2 children, we own 2 $300,000 homes (with equity), we have 4 paid for cars, no credit card debt & believe it or not, I'm a long time Farmers Insurance agent. Has it been easy? NO. But I always looked at it as, "There are plenty of other agents doing good, so why can't I?" Your agency, like any business, has to be run properly. You need to watch your overhead, hire GOOD employees.....and the list goes on. What I'm trying to point out is, there are PLENTY of successful Farmers Insurance agents, and it's true, if you can't handle the way they run things, you should probably quit and try something else. If you're a Farmers agent having a hard time, talk to other fellow agents (ones that are doing well) and get an idea or 2 and try something different that may work for you. And remember, you're a SALES person, not an order taker. If you need training then get it. Try NAIFA or SBA.
atgnut
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by atgnut »

That's fine and dandy JBURLY and I congratulate you and your sucess, but the reality of Farmers now and the Farmers that you signed up for are different. To be successful as a salesperson today or any day you have to have competative products to sell. I'm sure you would agree with that. Today the captains of the ship are of a different breed than when you started. I should also mention that I too ran a sucessful business in the flooring industry before I got swindled into the pyramid that it has become today. I think that you would also agree that you are in the minority of sucessful Farmers agents and it's not because the agents don't know how to run there business, but because of being at the mercy of the ship captains that are driven by GWP and the 2010 do or die number. The only winners in this scheme today are the biggest crabs in the barrel.
lonestar
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by lonestar »

jburly, I am glad to see that you are prospering as a Farmers agent in today's marketplace. Perhaps there is a secret ingredient in the company Kool-Aid that gives an agent a supernatural ability to sell ice to Eskimoes. Can you be so kind and share with me and the others how to sell an auto product that is twice the price, for less coverage, to a client that is so happy to pay double that they refer you all their friends and family while doing cartwheels on the way out of your office? In a capitalist society, I always thought a quality product that is priced competitively would sell itself. That's my "Sham-Wow" theory. "It just sells itself." Silly me. Now, where's that Kool-Aid? :)
d's insurance store
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by d's insurance store »

I've posted along these same lines before, but I think it bears repeating again...
When one is a captive agent, their view of their agency business is almost entirely based on their rate competitiveness in their own marketplace. When prospect inquiries convert to sales because of rates, and the business grows, and the agent and staff can quote confidently, then Farmer's/State Farm/Allstate/Am Family appear to be the greatest revenue thing since sliced toast. And because of the total dependancy piece of being a captive, when one is out of the marketplace and there are no other products in the back room to bring out and sell, then affiliation with a captive feels like a ball and chain.

I, like many others here, started in the captive environment and fondly remember my early days with a competitive home insurance product that I just exploited as much as possible. Soliciting quotes from a direct mail campaign with the confidence that my rate was really good, along with the cross sell opportunities of just having saved the client some money made things look as though I'd be rich in no time and in a job that I loved.

But, when the worm turned, and rates went sour, and my close ratio went south and suddenly I wasn't as popular, it was devistating. And when I started losing clients to the competition with parting remarks such as 'you're a great agent, but hey, $300 per year is real money and you're not worth that...', no amount of service attribute could reverse that trend. Such is the risk of playing the personal lines or small commercial game.

I remember the long, sincere conversations I shared with fellow captives about the future. I remember yearly kick-off meetings, where middle and upper managers would vaguely acknowledge the lack of good rates, promise to 'look into it' and then admonish the sales force to sell 'value and service and claims' and not price, because the price conscious client would only leave you for the next lowest price and the true high value client would stick by you and your agency regardless of cost 'if only you put service first and sold them another life insurance policy that would lock in the household'.

Heck, I remember moving my own personal auto policy away from my company because the cost savings were more than $400 per year and my own commission didn't amount to that.

So, that's what I attribute the wide difference in outlook and opinion here when discussions turn to individual captive environments.

Many successful independent agents who had no industry experience, like myself, couldn't have started and learned without the captive system. And, there continue to be many very successful captives who've managed to grow either organically or through acquisition within their own captive systems. When you have a $5million plus book in a captive environment, then losing some accounts to price shoppers has less of an impact when you're able to run the agency with an agency principal and two staff persons, and that's where a large number of captives are at present. After all, that brand name sign on the front of the office still carriers a certain amount of recognition value with the insurance buying public.

There's no one answer. For every disgruntled captive agent struggling for very real reasons, there's going to be another captive somewhere else who has good rates, loyal policyholders and a recognized sign that drives quotes and new business into the office. As seen here in earlier postings.
Texas Agent
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by Texas Agent »

You can tell there is passion from the people posting at the way Farmers has did good hard working agents. What does everyone think about the new announcment that they are creating an Independent market that will be branded under the Foremost brand? I bet they have a competitive rate when they have to compete in an Independent Agency. It will actually be funny that the Independent will get a better rate, higher commission and access to Zurich commercial. The Farmers agents will be mad but everyone need to understand it does not matter to Zurich where the production comes from as long as it comes. I bet Zurich sits back and can't believe what the Farmers management has been able to get away with. Zurich has always dealt with the Independent agent system and now they just sit back and draw the big bucks from the Farmers machine.
ED3771316
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by ED3771316 »

I think what frustrates me more then anything is the fact that one household can have multiple FARA scores.

When they rolled out Household Comp Credit, the word credit used to mean a reduction. Now, in Farmers Logic, it means an increase accross the board - Be Damned Webster. Then the inevitible flood of paperwork that clients get and the lenghty hold times with Service Point.

The Aurora center was working just fine. Efficent. Good People, always knew who to talk to for what. Now its phone promt maze and wonder how long to hold. Hundreds of people (policy holders) out of work

Or maybe what frustrates me more is when you quote an auto then go to issue it, the numbers do not match the quote.

Or maybe its the inefficent technology.

Now they want us to write a Multiple Auto Policy when they just ran us through the hoops of rewrite so we can get SP so they can rerun the FARA, ignore Comparitive Logic and kick him harder when he is down.

Maybe its time to move on.
philip
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by philip »

For some time now the airways have been bombarding the public with the savings that various companies can save them on their auto insurance. NOT FARMERS! With the economy in the shape it is in people are definitely shopping. As a Farmers agent in Texas I can tell you that our local town idiot can easily find a better rate than Farmers. It is an absolute shame with such a severe recession going on, that Farmers sees fit to increase their customers rates. If things don't change soon, 2009 may be the year to resign! Sounds kinda poetic doesn't it?
RMaxey
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by RMaxey »

You guys should discuss some exit strategies you used to swith to IA. I think that would help many Farmers agents and others alike. :)
RMaxey
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by RMaxey »

I am sure that many companies have some of the same problems as Farmers. It amazes me, however, that so many discussions are about Farmers and ex-Farmers agents.
atgnut
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by atgnut »

Don't be amazed RMaxey. The reality is there is a reason for so many post about Farmers. This company will go to any length to destroy agents not on board with there schemes and deception. Right now the ship is sinking and everyone is in survival mode. The insureds are suffering and the agents are suffering. All the company knows right now is to increase the bottom line to pay Zurich and keep them happy. Who or what gets hurt in the process is irrevelavant to the management at this point.
mica.cooper
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by mica.cooper »

A friend of mine that a Farmers DM did in sent me this:

"They should have went into more details on the "promises" part of their speech. My dm told me there was 1,800 policies in my book... when he "finally" turned the reins over, there was 890 policies!"

"What me and four other rookie agents had to battle was, the dm not knowing just how many were on the books at the time, how many dollars were getting funneled into his dm account (because it was up to him to keep the agencies running via rent, utilities, office staff), so there was no way of knowing how many dollars were solely for XXXXX... or YYYYYY... or ZZZZZZ.... BULL CRAP !!! He would get madder than a hornet every time I pressed him to call home office or regional office. He said it was an impossible number for him to do, because all the policies were lumped into his "01" agency code. I would press him to the point of being concerned he would cut me loose, that I stopped asking. But, when the time come on 12/16/02 to be a "career agent", but he didn't release the policies until April '03... to move the policies over to me, suddenly the system was smart enough to know what ones to push my way???

EVERY SINGLE ONE of those other four agents had the same gripes:
  • Never told you had to have 1,200 x-dates
    Never told you better be in bed BIG TIME with a banker (credit line) to get you through the two years they said it would take to survive the start-up world
    Never told you before you could go career, you needed to have FIVE Life Policies and so many auto/home policies sold
    Never told you, once you hit those types of sales, that you had to have your Series 6 and 63 credentials with selling securities
    Never told you it would be three years when you started into that second year
Each one of us had the exact same accounts of not getting all the information, literally being misled.
...the dm was Slick Willy enough to keep much from making written form."

My friend lost his agency, savings, wife, and home to Farmers.
Hunter600
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Re: Farmers Insurance

Post by Hunter600 »

I was a Farmers agent until my dm used false vin #'s to write policies in my household for other agents to help keep them on subsidy. A high deductible comp only policy is very cheap to write and when right through the system. A few keystrokes and you have another policy to add to your count. When the dm retired(I wonder why) the auditor found this and and I was dragged into it .I had all documentation to vindicate me but was still thrown out . I was told by the auditor that Farmers could not ask me to handle their money any better than I did as it was perfect(the handling of money). The spineless state director wanted me out.
Now I am an IA and it is my goal to take as much business as I can from Farmers. The rates around here from Farmers are horrible so I am doing a decent job of that.
I wrote mostly commercial and the dmm would not support me and ordered the dm not to offer me any assistance because I didn't write much in the way of personal lines.My first year I wrote $ 400,000 in commercial business My career as a Farmers agent lasted 23.66 months, never ran to daylight. I am so glad that I did not spend any more time there than I did.
I have encountered 2 friends in the last year who joined Farmers and expressed to me what a great company that they were selling for. I called for both of them this week and they neither one are with Farmers and it is not such a great company now. In closing, I would recommend that a person should consider PIA or SIAA or any other such organizations before they waste time with Farmers.
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