Mr. Soto has captured the essence of the issue as it relates to the distingushing characteristics of PSA’S and contingency fees. He is an excellent representative for Independent Agents across the country, and will represent our interests in a meaningful way.
Go Alex! You are really on the target and it is time that Spitzer be put in place. This entire debacle has caused irreprable harm to perfectly innocent bystanders and for Spitzer to paint everyone in the insurance industry with the same brush points to his obvious lack of understanding and knowledge of the industry. He should stick to what he knows and it is obviously not insurance.
An excellent defense of an otherwise obscure distinction between the roles of agents and brokers for the vast majority of the American public. Good job Dad. We’re proud of you!
I believe the IIABA needs to do more than lip service to congress. They seem more concerned about maintaining state regulation. This issue surely will have a residual effect on independent agents because of all of the publicity. I have already had people raise the issue when we recommended AIG Private Client Group. Maybe they should spend some “Trusted Choice” money on PR to seperate IAs from from the big brokers.
Not to rain on Mr Soto’s parade, there are significant issues in regard to contingent commission plans for Main Street America agents.
As we all know there are more than the plain jane “profit sharing plans”. For instance, there are the book-rolls and individual incentives to place certain lines of business with a particular carrier.
The above plans provide an extra financial incentive for an agent to roll business to or place a desired LOB with a particular carrier. In some cases it may not be to a customer’s best interest, premium-wise and/or coverage-wise, to have that coverage placed with that carrier. To say that independent agents always take the option that is best for the customer is pure naivete, especially when there is a strong monetary incentive.
Until all agents make commissions and contingent commissions fully transparent, the independent agent of America rightfully leaves himself up to scrutiny and action by Mr Spitzer and his ilk.
With all due respect Mr. Spitzer what about the fees or overcharges that attorneys charge. Or does it not apply in your field. Do attorneys take on a case if they know they are not going to make any money. HMMMM I dont think so. I agree that their should be better regulations but please bring down your halo and work on making changes in your line of work first before poking your devilish horns in what you truly have no clue about.
Larry is either a bitter “inside” person, or is a self-loathing agent.
No one is going to roll a book at-will just for a pittance that incent the book transfer. I’ve heard in the past that some agents do this to earn a trip. But, today it is to costly with today’s underwriting tools.
One area that offends me most is when agency aggregators suck-up grandpa’s deteriorating book, the suckee automatically gains star status from the carrier, as if they produced something new!
Contingent agreements are dinosaurs from the past. Carriers would reward agents for profitability – WHEN THEY WERE THE FIELD UNDERWRITER! Now, with automated underwriting, it has become a system of reward or penalty for the experience of the product manager’s defective model.
Just make it easy and pay us a competitive commission, and production will take care of itself. Look at Progressive, for God’s sake. They pay squat, but make it easy and they kick most carriers’ butts.
I am a public adjuster and caught several agents in Miami selling insurance but never sending the premiums into the insurance company. The individuals that purchased the insurance had no idea they should receive a policy in the mail. They thought the mortgage company took care of it and that was it. The mortgage company did take care of it and by that I mean they forceplaced insurance so these individuals did have insurance put they paid for it twice and at a very expensive price. This would never have been found out if a claim had not been filed because if a claim had not been filed, the agent could keep the premium and that was that. We had the Department of Insurance launch a full investigation and low and behold both insurance agencies were shut down. Sad but true! Glad to of been able to help, especially when most people think public adjusters are the gangsters.
become a field underwriter and write quality business and recieve more income, a dinosaur? I think not…It is the path of a quality agent, who has staying power, which other sales organizations do not have…it is the recipe for a long and fulfilling career in insurance…
You need a contingency commission to keep you straight? I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I can tell you that it’s the mills that grind policies out, misclassify GL and workers comp, write two (2) policies with differnet carriers to hide what they are really insuring, buy out old grandpa’s diminishing book to aggregate along with the other dead soldiers that didn’t keep up with technology, so they got flimm flammed out of their agency because they were lost on how to run it with computers – aggregated to make policy peddling factory look like a star in the carriers’ eye – these are the pan-flashes that get all of the contingency money, and drive the hurdle ever-higher for the rest of us.
Field underwriting is a hoax that went the way of the dinosaur when carriers put together line underwriters, and the field rep became nothing more than a courier to deliver your reports, and to ask you to throw darts at the production chart for the coming year. you cannot control the carriers lack of appetite, so you know that’s an exercise in futility.
I have no time for these bottom-feeding, drag-net book aggregators, They are in the agency business, but not really the insurance business. It’s all leverage to them, same as the carriers. But obviously the carriers see value – for now – in them. What happens when you need to SERVICE the books, and you have no producer? It’s the GEICO-ization of the independent agency system. Call 1-800-NUMB-SKULL for service from the lowest common denominator – the entry-level data entry clerk.
Mr. Soto has captured the essence of the issue as it relates to the distingushing characteristics of PSA’S and contingency fees. He is an excellent representative for Independent Agents across the country, and will represent our interests in a meaningful way.
Go Alex! You are really on the target and it is time that Spitzer be put in place. This entire debacle has caused irreprable harm to perfectly innocent bystanders and for Spitzer to paint everyone in the insurance industry with the same brush points to his obvious lack of understanding and knowledge of the industry. He should stick to what he knows and it is obviously not insurance.
An excellent defense of an otherwise obscure distinction between the roles of agents and brokers for the vast majority of the American public. Good job Dad. We’re proud of you!
I believe the IIABA needs to do more than lip service to congress. They seem more concerned about maintaining state regulation. This issue surely will have a residual effect on independent agents because of all of the publicity. I have already had people raise the issue when we recommended AIG Private Client Group. Maybe they should spend some “Trusted Choice” money on PR to seperate IAs from from the big brokers.
Not to rain on Mr Soto’s parade, there are significant issues in regard to contingent commission plans for Main Street America agents.
As we all know there are more than the plain jane “profit sharing plans”. For instance, there are the book-rolls and individual incentives to place certain lines of business with a particular carrier.
The above plans provide an extra financial incentive for an agent to roll business to or place a desired LOB with a particular carrier. In some cases it may not be to a customer’s best interest, premium-wise and/or coverage-wise, to have that coverage placed with that carrier. To say that independent agents always take the option that is best for the customer is pure naivete, especially when there is a strong monetary incentive.
Until all agents make commissions and contingent commissions fully transparent, the independent agent of America rightfully leaves himself up to scrutiny and action by Mr Spitzer and his ilk.
With all due respect Mr. Spitzer what about the fees or overcharges that attorneys charge. Or does it not apply in your field. Do attorneys take on a case if they know they are not going to make any money. HMMMM I dont think so. I agree that their should be better regulations but please bring down your halo and work on making changes in your line of work first before poking your devilish horns in what you truly have no clue about.
Larry is either a bitter “inside” person, or is a self-loathing agent.
No one is going to roll a book at-will just for a pittance that incent the book transfer. I’ve heard in the past that some agents do this to earn a trip. But, today it is to costly with today’s underwriting tools.
One area that offends me most is when agency aggregators suck-up grandpa’s deteriorating book, the suckee automatically gains star status from the carrier, as if they produced something new!
Contingent agreements are dinosaurs from the past. Carriers would reward agents for profitability – WHEN THEY WERE THE FIELD UNDERWRITER! Now, with automated underwriting, it has become a system of reward or penalty for the experience of the product manager’s defective model.
Just make it easy and pay us a competitive commission, and production will take care of itself. Look at Progressive, for God’s sake. They pay squat, but make it easy and they kick most carriers’ butts.
I am a public adjuster and caught several agents in Miami selling insurance but never sending the premiums into the insurance company. The individuals that purchased the insurance had no idea they should receive a policy in the mail. They thought the mortgage company took care of it and that was it. The mortgage company did take care of it and by that I mean they forceplaced insurance so these individuals did have insurance put they paid for it twice and at a very expensive price. This would never have been found out if a claim had not been filed because if a claim had not been filed, the agent could keep the premium and that was that. We had the Department of Insurance launch a full investigation and low and behold both insurance agencies were shut down. Sad but true! Glad to of been able to help, especially when most people think public adjusters are the gangsters.
become a field underwriter and write quality business and recieve more income, a dinosaur? I think not…It is the path of a quality agent, who has staying power, which other sales organizations do not have…it is the recipe for a long and fulfilling career in insurance…
Mr. Hester,
You need a contingency commission to keep you straight? I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I can tell you that it’s the mills that grind policies out, misclassify GL and workers comp, write two (2) policies with differnet carriers to hide what they are really insuring, buy out old grandpa’s diminishing book to aggregate along with the other dead soldiers that didn’t keep up with technology, so they got flimm flammed out of their agency because they were lost on how to run it with computers – aggregated to make policy peddling factory look like a star in the carriers’ eye – these are the pan-flashes that get all of the contingency money, and drive the hurdle ever-higher for the rest of us.
Field underwriting is a hoax that went the way of the dinosaur when carriers put together line underwriters, and the field rep became nothing more than a courier to deliver your reports, and to ask you to throw darts at the production chart for the coming year. you cannot control the carriers lack of appetite, so you know that’s an exercise in futility.
I have no time for these bottom-feeding, drag-net book aggregators, They are in the agency business, but not really the insurance business. It’s all leverage to them, same as the carriers. But obviously the carriers see value – for now – in them. What happens when you need to SERVICE the books, and you have no producer? It’s the GEICO-ization of the independent agency system. Call 1-800-NUMB-SKULL for service from the lowest common denominator – the entry-level data entry clerk.