Best Personal lines rates in CA

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JAM
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Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by JAM »

Im looking to add a personal Lines carrier that had very competitive rates in CA. We already have Travelers, safeco, metlife Any suggestions.
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SFOInsuranceLady
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by SFOInsuranceLady »

Have you tried Allied, Encompass and Kemper?
d's insurance store
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by d's insurance store »

Have you thought of checking your comparative rater to see which companies show with the lowest rates for your various quotes that are already in your system? No one company in California is the 'cheapest' in every marketing area.
SFOInsuranceLady
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by SFOInsuranceLady »

D has a great idea if you can afford $200+ per month for a comparison rater, but IMPE, Encompass has the best rates across the board for all lines of insurance when you package the auto, home, dwelling and umbrella all together for one client.
JAM
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by JAM »

I do most of my business in Oramge, and LA counties. Is Allied pretty good there, what about encompass and Kemper.
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SFOInsuranceLady
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by SFOInsuranceLady »

Rates are extremly competative in San Francsico for all three insurers. Allied and Encompass more-so than Kemper. I have a client in Orange County that is insured with Encompass and the rates there are competative, too. If I had to choose betweenthe three, I would go with Encompass.
d's insurance store
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by d's insurance store »

SFOInsuranceLady wrote:D has a great idea if you can afford $200+ per month for a comparison rater, but IMPE, Encompass has the best rates across the board for all lines of insurance when you package the auto, home, dwelling and umbrella all together for one client.
With all due respect, and a certain amount of sanctimonious sarcasm...if an agency owner cannot 'afford' the monthly cost of a comparative rater for personal lines and/or small commercial business, then what in the heck are they doing in this business anyway? How does the agency handle quotes...'let me call you back?' while the agent goes through quote scenerios with two or three propriatary quote engines on the carrier web site?

In this day and age, for an agency to offer personal lines and NOT have a comparative rater harkens back to manual rating books and pen and paper applications.

And furthermore, an agency owner in touch with the front line aspects of client acquisition should ALWAYS be aware of competitve positioning with appointed carriers and competition. Knowing why an agency is winning and losing quotes and to whom is just basic business sense. If business is lost, or is not being placed continuously, it is the job of the agency owner to know why and to what extent. Otherwise, just how long can the agency survive?
SFOInsuranceLady
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by SFOInsuranceLady »

Wow, D....don't take it so personally - I wasn't being saracstic.

Comparison raters such as FSC and the like are a fantastic tool to compare the agent's carriers and those he/she doesn't offer, however, when we did have it, 9 times out of 10, we didn't use it as we knew the rates of our carriers well enough to determine where the risk should be placed, and our carriers that did have the best rates were not on the comparison rater's list! So we got rid of it and are successsful selling insurance to our clients by providing them with "live" quotes when they call or are on-line. Since we now have the internet to deal with, the comparison rater is not a useful tool for our office as we have outgrown it. FYI, our agency is a family-run business which started back in 1946...looks like we will be doing buisness for another 64 years. We use the extra $200+ towards marketing our buisness.

So, when JAM asked for a carrier that was competative, I was anwering him as honestly as I could.
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by Porter »

I'm an agent in Southern California and have all the best appointments. If you already have Travelers, Safeco, and MetLife I would add Mercury. Their rates are good with preferred and non-standard risks. Allied is good also but they are always wanting more and more production.

Ps. I have been an agent for 10 years and use FSC. I still don't know which company is going to be at the top next.
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JAM
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by JAM »

Porter wrote:I'm an agent in Southern California and have all the best appointments. If you already have Travelers, Safeco, and MetLife I would add Mercury. Their rates are good with preferred and non-standard risks. Allied is good also but they are always wanting more and more production.

Ps. I have been an agent for 10 years and use FSC. I still don't know which company is going to be at the top next.
We use Exlynks and FSC only goes off the filed rated and not the actual rates for carriers you dont have. Fsc does not take into account all the discounts etc.. for carrier you dont have an appointment with. Maybe I will try Allied and Encompass. We do 70+ % commercial anyway and I broker out Allied deals though another broker.
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rodgwag
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by rodgwag »

You already have the best carriers in the business. if price is an issue it is because you are not selling value to the customer with packages to increase retention. The LOWEST price game is for order takers not insurance sales people.
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RKunz2
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Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by RKunz2 »

rodgwag wrote:You already have the best carriers in the business. if price is an issue it is because you are not selling value to the customer with packages to increase retention. The LOWEST price game is for order takers not insurance sales people.

I have to agree with rodgwag on this one. You represent some marquee carriers and it almost sounds like you're a little all over the board. What's your target market? Preferred, standard, non-standard, assigned risk? High-value HO, track homes, mobile homes? Focus and intensify! Look, I'm a former Farmers guy and I used to take Mercury policyholders over like crazy. Rates aren't the end-game in personal lines insurance. Like realtors will always tell you, Location, Location, and Location! With insurance, it's Package, Package, and Package! Know your products, its strengths and weaknesses, find the value to your customer. I was able to compete (on price) more often than not with Mercury because I knew my customers, their needs, and I knew my products. The way to sell standard market products against the commodity lines of the world is knowing how to maximize your discounts and knowing how to explain the value proposition to your customer.

If you're trying to be like every other general insurance agent in the world, then you may as well line up an appointment with every single carrier you can find because you'll need it. Idenitify your target market and what sets you aside from your competition, then go get the business.

Good luck!
Last edited by RKunz2 on Tue Jan 04, 2011 1:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
joey52
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by joey52 »

RKunz2, are you no longer a Farmers guy? When did you make the move? I am currently a Farmers agent and am seriously looking at making the move to the IA world. Do you have any advice on going with direct apointments or clusters? Thanks
RKunz2
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Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by RKunz2 »

joey52 wrote:RKunz2, are you no longer a Farmers guy? When did you make the move? I am currently a Farmers agent and am seriously looking at making the move to the IA world. Do you have any advice on going with direct apointments or clusters? Thanks

I relocated just before going Career. FIG doesn't do transfers so they wanted me to re-start the Reserve program again in my new location. I elected to just say, 'no' and moved on.

Advice...hmmm? Do it right and be careful not to breach your contract with FIG. Direct appointments are the way to go as an IA, but not all that easy to get in most cases. Wholesalers and MGA's are always good, aggregators work too, but you'll need to figure out access to standard markets. Clusters usually have requirements, some more stringent than others, but most won't take an agent just for signing up. The ones that do will cost.

I'm sure there's a lot of folks in here that a smarter and would give better advice. The one really important piece that I can tell you from experience is, SPECIALIZE. I was an IA owner before merging. I've also talked to quite a few IA's and one thing that seems constant (more so in the last 2 years, the IA's that focus on specialty niches survive much better than general insurance. If you're general insurance, make sure you've got BIG BUCKS for a marketing budget because you're swimming in the big water with some very heavy hitters. If you specialize, it usually narrows the field considerably, depending on your niche and geographic region.

If I can be of any help, I will, so feel free to ask. Best of luck in all your endeavors, whichever way you decide to go! :shock:
FFA
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Re: Best Personal lines rates in CA

Post by FFA »

D, they have to start somewhere. Initial start up, time is what he will have. Getting a Comparative rater is a very good idea.
Cluster VS Direct? When I made the jump from Captive, I was told by my direct appointers that I was best off staying away from Clusters. Not sure why, just to stay.
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