It seems agencies today have more challenges than ever. Below are three tips to reduce errors and omissions (E&O) exposures. 1. Send Certificates of Insurance I would love to share with you a story regarding a multinational company that demanded …
One of the worst sentences a contract attorney’s clients can hear when that attorney is opining on some onerous clause is absolutely the phrase: “I can win this in court.” For example, when a carrier gives an agency a new …
Flooding in southern Louisiana in the late summer of 2016 revealed 86 percent of flooded homes had no flood insurance. No flood insurance next door to one of our nation’s — and that state’s — largest catastrophe, which involved a …
Independent insurance agencies’ accounting methods and contractual and legal requirements are unique, especially considering how lax enforcement is when all 50 states and the federal government have long-standing accounting rules that apply to 100 percent of all agencies. No exceptions …
Do loss ratios matter? The old school answer is: “Absolutely! You are crazy for even asking the question!” Of course, loss ratios still matter, but how much they matter and how they matter may no longer be the same. I’ve …
When I began my career, many agency owners I met had founded their agencies in the Great Depression. To this day, I am amazed that anyone in the middle of a truly horrible economic depression would open a property/casualty insurance …
Three times in three months now, I have seen major carriers “provide” contracts that in some cases outright take ownership of agency expirations and in another case only take an “interest” in them. I’ve seen it with both P/C and …
Carriers have made a huge mistake. Most do not yet get it. Some never will grasp the mistake they’ve made. Some will know but will forever deny they have made the mistake. However, it is a strategic mistake nonetheless. This …
I have analyzed more than 700 data points specifying what producers generate in commissions versus what they are paid as a percentage of their commissions. I must emphasize that this is verified data. I did not take the agency owners’ …
An agency’s greatest struggle, per many surveys, is finding staff and producers. What if they were as available as different loaves of bread and you could go to a supermarket to purchase producers and staff? Let’s say you wanted the …
