lonestar, I started out life with Farmers in February 1982. I left them in February 1989 by mutual consent. In 1994 I compiled a summary of the appointments in my operating area. Farmers had maintained an agency force in that area of five full time agents with only one bona-fide retirement. To repla...

Your post doesn't say where you are located. Progressive is the one company you can't live with and can't live without. They do a good job but the commission sucks. You might try contracting with a smaller regional carrier that offers commercial coverage.

I have had several requests from consumers for Guaranteed Replacement Cost. I really don't want to offer the coverage, but felt I should do my part to make sure that I was advising my clients correctly as I had also assumed that GRC is no longer offered in CA. I have heard that AAA will offer GRC b...

My recommendation is do not walk but RUN to the nearest exit. check out the other discussions in this forum on Allied. One is Allied Insurance -Agency terminations. Alied/Nationwide works four sides of the fence. Captive, Encubmered, Independent and direct. Their Captive is similar to Farmers in tha...

My first thought would be to visit with a CPA/Tax Counselor & discuss any benefits the you might enjoy by doing that i.e. un-reimbursed sales expenses you currently incur being taken directly off of your income as an expense. The only negative that I can clearly see is that then you will be resp...

I've been a TAM (Applied) user since 1994. At that time the first years maintenance was included in the purchase price. It doesn't sound like that is the case now from what you've said. It was also a five user system (their smallest package then). When they offered us the online system we elected to...

Before you complain to your state association, check the association sponsors. Many of those big companies contribute large sums to the associations. I have seen this result in a lack of 'effort' on the part of associations to resolve issues like this. That is why marketplace behavior is the best o...

d's insurance store I think that the the client's behavior was predicated by the wording in Allieds letter that they sent. Regarding production, we were consistently growing from year to year, had a reasonable loss ratio and yes we did pro-actively contact the customers prior to the letter from All...

This discussion is about Allied insurance Companies position on ownership of renewal information. I appointed with Allied in 2006 and was terminated for lack of production in 2010. The following is the language from their agency contract regarding Ownership of expirations. Page 2 of 4. IX. Ownership...

I agree with AgencyEquity in that the CIC, CRM, AAIS and CPCU designations, to name a few, will carry as much weight and possibly a bit more than a Masters degree. The reason for my feeling is that all of these designations require updates on current coverage and industry changes to keep the designa...

A quick note on the National Alliance Dynamics of Selling program , in order to attend that you need to have the CIC Designation. To learn more about that program go to http://www.scic.com/. To get the designation you have to attend and complete five of the CIC ( Certified Insurance Counselor ) Inst...

Fellow Insurance Workers, I keep hearing in the news about the Flood funding and keeping it solvent. I was wondering if anyone else thinks the way I do... Currently, the Flood fund is paid for by policyholders AND subsidized by everyone else. My question is, if states can pool auto, home, and busin...

NewinSD This subject has come up frequently for Captives wanting to become Independant. I'm pasting several I/J links for you to read some of the other discussions. Admittedly I have comments in all of these having made the transition from FIG to I/A in 1989. It is not easy and I'm not sure how doa...

I have to say that I agree with Island Girl Agent and I also agree with scott It's always a judgement call and you have to be prepared and willing to make the wrong call from time to time. On the time spent by FFA in making the presentation that's also a judgement call. It sounds to me that, if he w...

You might check out this link on the I/J http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2001/02/07/13759.htm . It's talking about Rackley. I got their old DOS version as a prize at a PIA Convention many years ago that I still use for things like getting; class codes for GL & WC; CSP codes for pro...