Latest Agencies Headlines

All the headlines from our Agencies Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Florida Agent Charged with Forging Forms for Mitigation Credits

Oct 30 2013 // Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater announced the arrest of Leon Mobley, 45, a licensed insurance agent in Wellington, for allegedly submitting false and forged wind mitigation verification inspection forms on...

Rusbuldt on McKinsey 3: Don’t Ignore Trends Favoring Independent Agents

Oct 30 2013 // Bob Rusbuldt, president and CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America – the Big “I”- takes issue with a McKinsey report that claims local independent agents will soon be extinct. In this...

ProWriters Launches Small Business Online Quoting Platform

Oct 29 2013 // ProWriters is now providing agents and brokers access to online quoting and binding for small business professional liability insurance with general liability and/or a business owners policy (BOP). Quotes for small...

Rusbuldt on McKinsey 2: Agent-Carrier Relationships Make a Difference

Oct 29 2013 // Bob Rusbuldt, president and CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America – the Big “I”- takes issue with a McKinsey report that claims local independent agents will soon be extinct. In this...

Marsh & McLennan Climbs to Post-Spitzer High

Oct 28 2013 // Marsh & McLennan Cos., the biggest insurance broker by market value, has climbed to a 9-year high, bouncing back from the plunge that followed then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s lawsuit against the...

Why McKinsey’s Prediction of Demise of Independent Agents Is ‘Dead Wrong’

Oct 28 2013 // A recent report from McKinsey & Co. had some bad news for local property/casualty insurance agents— many of them will be out of business within the next five to 10 years. McKinsey contends that “the economics...

Illinois Insurance Brokers Frustrated with Health Care Law

Oct 25 2013 // Insurance brokers in Illinois vented their frustrations recently with the troubled rollout of President Barack Obama’s health care law and the crippled federal website, HealthCare.gov. Dozens attended a meeting with...

Eyeing Affluent Market, Crestbrook Ready to Launch in Illinois

Oct 24 2013 // Well-to-do Illinois residents and their insurance agents can soon look forward to another option when it comes to protecting their assets. Crestbrook Insurance has selected Illinois for the launch of what is essentially a...

Aspen Re Forms Rock Re in U.S. for Facultative Brokered Property

Oct 23 2013 // Bermuda-based Aspen Reinsurance, the reinsurance segment of Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited has formed Rock Re, a new dedicated brokered property facultative unit within its US operation. Rock Re “builds on Aspen...

Willis to Allocate Share of London Business to Pre-Selected Insurers

Oct 22 2013 // Willis Group Holdings Plc, the third-largest insurance broker by market value, agreed to allocate as much as 25 percent of premiums from the London corporate specialist market to pre-selected insurers. Underwriters in the...

Two Legacy Network Executives in Idaho Sentenced

Oct 22 2013 // The former founder and chairman of the board of The Legacy Network, an insurance brokerage agency in Rexburg, Idaho, and his son were sentenced on Wednesday in United States District Court in Pocatello. The sentencing was...

Selling Value

Oct 22 2013 // Selling Value not Price As a consumer, do you always buy the cheapest product or service you can find? If you are like most people, probably not. Do you gravitate towards the most expensive item you can find? Unless you...

Integro Acquires UK-Based Broker Doodson

Oct 22 2013 // International insurance brokerage and risk management firm Integro announced it has acquired Doodson Broking Group, a UK-based entertainment and sports specialist that also provides full service commercial and private...

GEICO Success Highlights Advertising Dollars vs. Agent Commissions Debate

Oct 22 2013 // Direct writer GEICO’s success in auto insurance sales is due to spending dollars on effective advertising rather than on agents, according to recent research from analysts at Nomura Equity Research, which notes that...

3 Scary Things About Insurance Marketing

Oct 21 2013 // IJAM welcomes guest blogger Charles Wasilewski, vice president of marketing communications for Aartrijk branding firm. It’s October, and I’m a bit nervous about hurricane season – and Halloween. After all,...

8 Ways to Organically Grow Your Independent Agency

Oct 21 2013 // Organic produce is popular. Free-range chicken is chic. So, why not get trendy and organically grow your agency? Naturally, inorganic growth is faster because it involves the buying of agencies, hiring producers with books...

Decreasing Agency Balance Sheet Value: A Positive Impact?

Oct 21 2013 // Despite significant optimism about key market fundamentals, year-over-year agency valuation increases and agency performance metrics, ownership perpetuation continues to be the biggest long-term challenge to...

How Being an Agent Prepared Tennessee Sen. Ketron for Politics

Oct 21 2013 // Insurance was a great training ground for now State Sen. Bill Ketron, who has been a member of the Tennessee Senate since 2002 while also serving as president of his own independent agency founded by his late...

Massachusetts DOI’s New Bulletin Says Producers May Charge Fees

Oct 17 2013 // Massachusetts regulators this month issued a bulletin announcing that producers for all lines of insurance may charge their clients fees in connection with the sale of insurance products. A statewide independent agent...

N.Y.-Based Vanderbilt Properties Insurance Brokerage Names CEO

Oct 17 2013 // Vanderbilt Properties Insurance Brokerage and Risk Management LLC, a New York-based specialist in insurance program administration for the real estate industry, promoted Alnoor S. Ladha to president and chief executive...