by d's insurance store » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:19 pm
Allstate is a very troubled environment for affiliated agents. Although presented as a 'self employed owner opportunity', in fact because of the demands placed on agency owners by the parent company, it feels much more like either an 'employee without benefits' or 'a franchise without franchise law protection'.
There are production quotas for P&C and Financial products. Location and office decor needs to be approved by managers. Rates are often far from competitive with other carriers for the bread and butter P&C personal lines. Their financial product offerings are not very sophisticated for today's marketplace. Allstate management is seen as operating in a very heavy handed and oppressive way towards its agency force.
Where personal lines rates are competitive and not a lot of fellow Allstate competition nearby, it's possible to feel good at the end of each work day. Those areas are few and far between.
Sign up with them and you'll receive a lot of promises that are unwritten and unfulfilled. My suggestion: Look elsewhere. If it were such a great deal, the available agencies would have been snatched up long ago.