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Jul 18 2005 // The Ohio Casualty Insurance Co. announced that Ralph S. Michael III, 50, has been named president and chief operating officer of the company, effective July 25, 2005. Michael comes to the Fairfield, Ohio-based company from...

By George Rothert

Jul 18 2005 // Working With Your E&S Wholesaler: Be Nice You’ll Need Them Again! The surplus lines industry pendulum is now on its backswing into a soft market. A couple years of market restriction and firm pricing brought a...

Agent Leader Hits Hodgepodge of Disclosure Rules by Insurers

Jul 18 2005 // While insurance companies are calling upon state officials to coordinate their responses to the various brokerage compensation and other inquiries, independent insurance agents are worried about how the insurers themselves...

Time Management for Insurance Agents or

Jul 18 2005 // Being busy is never a chore for insurance agents and producers. Being productively busy is the challenge. During a consultancy that spans 25 years, I have had the privilege of visiting well over a thousand agencies,...

Alliance Files Court Briefs On Behalf of Agents, Brokers in E&O Case

Jul 18 2005 // The American Agents Alliance has filed two briefs with the California Supreme Court in an attempt to protect insurance producers from fallout resulting from a recent Appellate Court ruling. On June 30 the state Supreme...

Jul 18 2005 // Majestic Insurance Company announced the appointment of David Porter to the new position of marketing manager for Southern California. Porter has more than 25 years of experience in the industry. Prior to joining Majestic,...

Do Your Customers Know What You Did Last Summer?

Jul 18 2005 // Consider this story. Fifty years ago a relatively unknown entrepreneur opened a family-oriented entertainment complex in Southern California. He decided to place signs at each attraction or ride indicating the expected...

How to Use Alternative Markets

Jul 18 2005 // The “hard market” conditions have been gone now for a couple of years. So, usually during “soft market” conditions one expects a lot of competition from the standard markets. This, however, is not...

Homeowners Insurance Agent Web Directory Goes National

Jul 18 2005 // InsureMyHouse.com, an informational Web site about homeowners insurance, started an online directory of homeowners insurance agents two months ago. The directory started in Pennsylvania and is now open to all 50...

More Agencies Expand with Hiring of Staff Risk Managers

Jul 18 2005 // Larger insurance agencies today are more likely than not to employ a director of risk management, a claim specialist and a loss control specialist, according to a recent study. Business Management Group Inc.’s...

Working With E&S Wholesalers: Be Nice … You’ll Need Them Again!

Jul 18 2005 // The surplus lines industry pendulum is now on its backswing into a soft market. A couple years of market restriction and firm pricing brought a temporary prosperity to the industry. The so-called “standard”...

Virginia Big ‘I’ Breaks Ground in Education, Starting with CSR Program

Jul 18 2005 // It’s an age-old problem for agency owners: where to find customer service representatives. Ask agency principals to name their biggest challenges and locating CSRs is right up there at the top of most...

Insurers Balk about Added Burden as N.J. Gov. Codey Signs Bill Restoring Consumer Advocate Office for 2006

Jul 18 2005 // New Jersey has brought back to life the state’s consumer advocate office that was killed more than 10 years ago. New Jersey Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey recently signed into law a bill that restores the Department of...

Closing Time

Jul 18 2005 // The Insurance Journal directory issues are known as “keepers,” because both empirical and anecdotal evidence tells us that readers are likely to hang on to them longer for easy access. In this case,...

The Industry Goes to School: Universities That Offer Insurance Degrees

Jul 18 2005 // Twenty years ago, it was nearly impossible to find colleges and universities offering degrees in insurance. Now there are many programs across the nation that offer bachelor’s degrees, concentrations, certifications...

Producer Development: Learning to Sell

Jul 18 2005 // New Program Teaches a Consultative Approach to Insurance Sales Beginning this week, 15 insurance agents are returning to Normal, Ill., to do an unusual thing in the world of insurance training: talk with each other about...

How to Use Alternative Markets

Jul 18 2005 // The “hard market” conditions have been gone now for a couple of years. So, usually during “soft market” conditions one expects a lot of competition from the standard markets. This, however, is not...

How to Select a MGA/Wholesaler

Jul 18 2005 // The following is a guideline for some of the key things to review during the selection process for qualified alternative markets. The term MGA also applies to GA, MGU, wholesaler, E&S broker, etc. Step One —...

Education Essential

Jul 18 2005 // Frequent CE Classes Keep Agents Informed Efforts to provide first-quality education at its annual convention, insurance day programs and at regular errors and omissions education programs puts the Professional Independent...

Continuing Education Opinions Differ

Jul 18 2005 // It was a pleasure talking to insurance agency and insurance association representatives to discuss agent education for the education story on page 12. It was also interesting to hear the differing opinions about...