Latest Agencies Headlines
All the headlines from our Agencies Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Insurance Agents Fined for Not Having Written Security Plans
Mar 7 2010 // Recent headlines underscore the importance of agents having written security plans to protect the privacy of their clients’ personal information. In the first case, the Virginia Bureau of Insurance fined an agent...
IRS, States Target Employer Abuse of Classification of Independent Contractors
Mar 7 2010 // The Internal Revenue Service and 37 states are cracking down on companies that try to trim payroll costs by illegally classifying workers as independent contractors, rather than as full employees, The Associated Press has...
Agency Innovators: How Agencies Leverage Social Networking
Mar 7 2010 // Technology Trailblazers Build Relationships, Business Receipts There’s no better time for insurance agents and brokers to delve into social networking technologies than now, according to those who study marketing and...
Simplified Generational Marketing for Small Agencies
Mar 7 2010 // Targeting the Needs of the Past, Present and Future Virtually every insurance marketing expert proclaims that to sell policies to each new generation, you must approach them differently than their predecessors. And of...
Experience and Specialization Matters When It Comes to Complex Hospitality Insurance
Mar 7 2010 // In my view, along with a good banker, lawyer, accountant and doctor, the next trusted person for business and personal matters that one should have a long term relationship with is an insurance agent. As a business grows...
Taxes and Insurance Agencies
Mar 7 2010 // Strategies to Take for 2010 and Beyond We are all familiar with the old saying “The only thing certain are death and taxes.” From where we stand right now in 2010 it is clear that we will be taxed, however, at...
Large Brokers Freed to Go After Contingent Commissions But Will They?
Mar 7 2010 // The nation’s largest insurance brokers have received the go-ahead to begin accepting contingent commissions again – but two of them say they won’t do it. Officials in New York, Illinois and Connecticut...
New York Agent Charged with Stealing Premiums
Mar 5 2010 // A New York state insurance agent has been charged for allegedly stealing $15,400 in premiums. State police arrested Emil Feduniec, of Tuckahoe, after an investigation by the New York State Insurance Department’s...
Mississippi Insurance Agent Tubertini Honored by Association
Mar 5 2010 // The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers (the Big “I”) has awarded Mississippi insurance agent Ronnie Tubertini with the Woodworth Memorial Award, the highest honor the association bestows on one of its...
Security Breach Notification Laws Reinforce Need for Cyber Insurance
Mar 4 2010 // With more than 40 states now enforcing privacy and security breach notification laws, underwriters are working hard to scoop up the business this niche creates, while also tweaking their policy forms to provide the...
Insurance Agents Name ‘Blue Dog’ U.S. Rep. Ross of Arkansas Top Legislator
Mar 4 2010 // The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”) has recognized Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), a former independent insurance agent, as its Legislator of the Year for 2009. The award was...
National Producer Licensing Reform Bill Passes House
Mar 4 2010 // Federal legislation designed to streamline non-resident insurance agent and broker licensing passed the U.S. House of Representatives. H.R. 2554, the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act of...
Leadership and Sales Culture in Insurance Agencies
Mar 2 2010 // Leadership is lightning in a bottle. There are as many definitions for it as there are leaders. Any rules that could be agreed upon as to what constitutes leadership could be quickly contradicted by an example of an...
USG Promotes Lee to Brokerage Manager in Louisiana
Mar 2 2010 // National wholesale commercial insurance broker, USG Insurance Services Inc., has promoted Gina Lee to brokerage manager in the company’s Louisiana office. Lee joined USG in August 2006 as a senior underwriter and...
America First Launches Online Learning Center for Appointed Agents
Mar 2 2010 // America First Insurance, a Liberty Mutual Agency Markets regional company headquartered in Richardson, Texas, has introduced an online Agent Learning Center for its appointed agencies. First American appointed agents can...
Social Service Organizations in Tough Economic Times
Mar 2 2010 // It’s no secret that nonprofits are feeling the effects of a battered economy. Donations are down. State and federal funding are also down. Insurance providers say they are keeping a close watch on changing exposures...
Flood Insurance Program Closed; No Policies Until Senate Votes
Mar 1 2010 // The Senate last week failed to vote on bills to extend several federal programs including jobless benefits, COBRA subsidies, transportation project funding and flood insurance before these programs expired Feb. 28. A...
U.S. Senator Presses Agencies for Information About Illinois Levees
Mar 1 2010 // U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin wants a meeting with two federal agencies to seek information about efforts to certify five levee systems in three southwestern Illinois counties. Durbin and other overseers of the levees in Madison,...
Agents Urged to Tell Insureds of Flood Program Lapse
Mar 1 2010 // Insurance agents with customers waiting to be covered in the federal flood insurance program should tell those customers about the program’s suspension, an insurance expert is advising. As reported by Insurance...
Will Gay Marriage Bring New Marketing Opportunities for Agents?
Feb 26 2010 // In business, change brings opportunity. And when it comes to states that have recently legalized gay marriage, some see a marketing opportunity in selling insurance products for wedded gay couples. The “gay...
