I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The “small” commercial insurance consumer is easily the segment of the insurance industry that NEEDS an agent the most. Yes, I get the fact that individually, the small business is not the George Clooney account–lower premiums, lower commissions. I get it. But “small” accounts aren’t always microscopic, and they tend to grow into a larger account. Small businesses that I work with capitalize on the small, person to person advantage of buying from THEM. Finally, the smaller accounts tend to be less sophisticated and price conscious consumer, and as such, are much more willing to forego coverage they don’t understand and therefore feel they might not need. Coverage like “Business Interruption with Extra Expense”, labeled as BI/EE might seen extraneous. “Products and Completed Ops”? Doesn’t my CGL stand for “Commercial General Liability”? Doesn’t that cover everything? And if I have an “umbrella”, why do I need a CGL anyway? Isn’t that overkill?
Oddly enough, as a Forensic Expert Witness, I have testified in Insurance Agent professional liability litigation in which an insured THOUGHT they were covered and weren’t. When I interview these people, their grasp of even basic insurance concepts is extremely limited. Given the opportunity, these people would naturally pick LOWER, and decline OPTIONAL coverage. We see it every day in our agency, people looking for an auto quote, don’t have Uninsured Underinsured coverage and didn’t know why they needed it until we explained it. And the little gecko didn’t bother, because hey, in 15 minutes the insured SAVED 15%.
Finally, I take HUGE satisfaction in the other headline in today’s Insurance Journal entry: Zenefits making massive layoffs. Good. If Miller wants to be an interrupter, interrupt this stupid notion that people don’t need people, they just need their computer and internet and their EMbroker, or Esurance, or their Eagent. Just find a competent agent and get to work.
Very good post JohnM. How many of these articles have we seen now about the imminent death of the Independent Agent due to the technology geeks taking over. I believe like you do that small commercial in particular needs the touch of a good agent and many do not embrace the internet to conduct their business. If they do, good luck to them when they have a problem and a claim is not covered due to a misunderstanding.
Both post are right on along with the comments from Mr. Miller about technology. I am a technology geek in this industry and I’ve worked with Carriers, MGAs, MGUs, Surplus lines Brokers and retails for over 28 year now on the software side of this well oiled distribution chain. The chain is here to stay for exactly the thoughts expressed above. Each group in the chain are vital cogs in the wheel and armed with the right technology the process can only get better. People talk of data standards to move data back and forth but it invariably gets sidetracked because one entity in the chain needs something a little different. This one-off scenario pertains to both domestic and foreign markets, the ultimate governors of the data that we share to bind accounts. Think about this, if there is only an 80% solution set for the standard, (the most commonly used data only – no body’s secret information) the chain is bound to be better off in the way it communicated one another. Bottom line: agent’s knowledge within the chain and well developed technology will always make for a better solution for the industry as a whole.
JimL, one thing we need to be mindful about is the problem in our industry regarding hacking proprietary information. Despite the geeks assurances of the data being secure, we see cases of very big companies being hacked and info taken. What small business wants their info hacked out of a server somewhere?
do you only send paper files to the carriers you write for and demand the parent company not use computers to store the client’s personal information you just sent them through the mail? do you tell small business owners their data won’t get hacked because it’s not actually stored on/in a computer somewhere?
Do you only troll articles in IJ to post nasty insults or do you have a real job? Your employer should be looking over your shoulder or auditing your computer to see what websites you are using. You may want to run a scan on your computer sometime and see if you have been hacked. Probably full of cookies and virus attempts. SARCASM!
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The “small” commercial insurance consumer is easily the segment of the insurance industry that NEEDS an agent the most. Yes, I get the fact that individually, the small business is not the George Clooney account–lower premiums, lower commissions. I get it. But “small” accounts aren’t always microscopic, and they tend to grow into a larger account. Small businesses that I work with capitalize on the small, person to person advantage of buying from THEM. Finally, the smaller accounts tend to be less sophisticated and price conscious consumer, and as such, are much more willing to forego coverage they don’t understand and therefore feel they might not need. Coverage like “Business Interruption with Extra Expense”, labeled as BI/EE might seen extraneous. “Products and Completed Ops”? Doesn’t my CGL stand for “Commercial General Liability”? Doesn’t that cover everything? And if I have an “umbrella”, why do I need a CGL anyway? Isn’t that overkill?
Oddly enough, as a Forensic Expert Witness, I have testified in Insurance Agent professional liability litigation in which an insured THOUGHT they were covered and weren’t. When I interview these people, their grasp of even basic insurance concepts is extremely limited. Given the opportunity, these people would naturally pick LOWER, and decline OPTIONAL coverage. We see it every day in our agency, people looking for an auto quote, don’t have Uninsured Underinsured coverage and didn’t know why they needed it until we explained it. And the little gecko didn’t bother, because hey, in 15 minutes the insured SAVED 15%.
Finally, I take HUGE satisfaction in the other headline in today’s Insurance Journal entry: Zenefits making massive layoffs. Good. If Miller wants to be an interrupter, interrupt this stupid notion that people don’t need people, they just need their computer and internet and their EMbroker, or Esurance, or their Eagent. Just find a competent agent and get to work.
Very good post JohnM. How many of these articles have we seen now about the imminent death of the Independent Agent due to the technology geeks taking over. I believe like you do that small commercial in particular needs the touch of a good agent and many do not embrace the internet to conduct their business. If they do, good luck to them when they have a problem and a claim is not covered due to a misunderstanding.
Both post are right on along with the comments from Mr. Miller about technology. I am a technology geek in this industry and I’ve worked with Carriers, MGAs, MGUs, Surplus lines Brokers and retails for over 28 year now on the software side of this well oiled distribution chain. The chain is here to stay for exactly the thoughts expressed above. Each group in the chain are vital cogs in the wheel and armed with the right technology the process can only get better. People talk of data standards to move data back and forth but it invariably gets sidetracked because one entity in the chain needs something a little different. This one-off scenario pertains to both domestic and foreign markets, the ultimate governors of the data that we share to bind accounts. Think about this, if there is only an 80% solution set for the standard, (the most commonly used data only – no body’s secret information) the chain is bound to be better off in the way it communicated one another. Bottom line: agent’s knowledge within the chain and well developed technology will always make for a better solution for the industry as a whole.
JimL, one thing we need to be mindful about is the problem in our industry regarding hacking proprietary information. Despite the geeks assurances of the data being secure, we see cases of very big companies being hacked and info taken. What small business wants their info hacked out of a server somewhere?
do you only send paper files to the carriers you write for and demand the parent company not use computers to store the client’s personal information you just sent them through the mail? do you tell small business owners their data won’t get hacked because it’s not actually stored on/in a computer somewhere?
Do you only troll articles in IJ to post nasty insults or do you have a real job? Your employer should be looking over your shoulder or auditing your computer to see what websites you are using. You may want to run a scan on your computer sometime and see if you have been hacked. Probably full of cookies and virus attempts. SARCASM!
please explain how you put your clients at ease that their data won’t get hacked out of a server.
and yeah. obviously my computer has cookies. i don’t think you know what that means. that doesn’t surprise me.