Gotta wonder if the web based premium will be the same as the agent based premium. You seldom get what you don\’t pay for.
I\’ve been a P&C adjuster and investigator for 28 years. If someone wants to buy insurance the same way they buy Chinese food, I won\’t get in the way. But give me a live agent who lives in my town and can intermediate disputes with my company any day.
In the good old days Progressive was the only one that decided to compete against the agents that built their company.
Now we have Hartford, Encompass (Allstate), Safeco and many others.
This is a real eye opener to agents that count on personal lines business. This isn\’t going away and independent agents will be used less and less for the purchase of personal lines policies.
This is the way I see it. If you are an insurance buyer shopping around for car or home insurance you can go to a bunch of different company websites or call them, complete each one of their questionnaires, and then decide which one to go with. Or/and you can go to an independent agent complete one questionnaire, get multiple companies quotes all at once, get unbiased information about each companies quote, and make a decision.
Unfortunately… this is a sign of the times. I have a feeling that many other insurers are researching this method of insurance sales. It only makes sense to the insurer; reduce the insurance companies expenses and even law suits. As an internet buyer, you are responsible to read the contract, choose your coverage\’s and decline optional coverage\’s, insureds will no longer have an agent to scream at or point the finger at or even sue. I\’ve been in insurance sales for more years than I care to mention and I\’ve made up my mind to get out now. It\’s bad enough that all the major insurers are turning to outsourcing thier customer service employment positions to other countries!
Hmmmm, let\’s see. Could this work? All independent agents roll their Safeco books now and watch Safeco wallow in mediocrity for the next two to three years. Then, those same independent agents \”Drive\” their Progressive book to another carrier and let them live with the adverse selection that a telephone operator can gather in for them. Finally, when they come calling looking for their new app committments, ask the rep to go online to your website, scroll down to the remarks section, and ask for an appointment to visit. I know it is wishful thinking, but if we don\’t all do something like this soon, other carriers will be prompted to do the same thing.
We came from the American States side of the fence, and my view is that Safeco has destroyed what had been a truly brilliant small business carrier. Safeco has been through our book like Sherman through Atlanta. Tracking that book that we\’ve had to rewrite, we have a four-year loss ratio in the twenties, so how brilliant is that as an underwriting strategy?
Truth is, we\’re pretty well stuck with our carriers being in competition with us. Frankly, while that upsets me, I am more disturbed when CEOs tell us how wonderful it is for agents whne they go direct, it is infuriating. LaRocco\’s a pretty straight shooter in my estimation, but Safeco\’s spin on this is worthy of James Carville.
That said, we continue to use carriers like Safeco when warranted, but we tend to drive our elite business to exclusively agent-driven carriers like Old Dominion and Auto Owners these days. I have long told carriers, as far back as Progressive\’s foray into direct marketing, that if they would put the resources into their agencies that they put into their direct marketing, we would make them more money. Very few carriers listen, but those that do will see my best clients.
Long term, it is my belief that you are seeing a race toward mediocrity. Hartford, Safeco, Progressive, and similar carriers will become completely undifferentiated from one another, while those that still carefully tend their crop of professional agents will stand out.
The demise of the agent has been predicted for fifty years. Fundamentally, man is a social animal, though, and usually prefer to deal with another human, assuming the service he gets is reasonable. If your agency does a good job, you\’re going to grow. If not, you\’ll need to update the resume. It\’s Darwinism.
These days size matters. You snooze, you lose. I agree that if carriers ended their adversarial posture toward their own agents, they\’d be better off.
SAFECO appointed a bunch of marginal SR22 mills a few years back to capture dollars in order to float the company for a while. Then they came out with the \”virtual producer\” which produced virtually nothing of consequence. Now they\’ll be spending millions on advertising and to staff a service center to pick up single-car auto insurance.
The only bonus is that agents will benefit vicariously from the name recognition created by the advertising. Finally, carriers will, like AIG and Progressive, will spend some money to tell people there are more companies than GEICO, Nationwide, State Farm and Allstate. The problem is that they are doing it to take our business.
Gotta wonder if the web based premium will be the same as the agent based premium. You seldom get what you don\’t pay for.
I\’ve been a P&C adjuster and investigator for 28 years. If someone wants to buy insurance the same way they buy Chinese food, I won\’t get in the way. But give me a live agent who lives in my town and can intermediate disputes with my company any day.
In the good old days Progressive was the only one that decided to compete against the agents that built their company.
Now we have Hartford, Encompass (Allstate), Safeco and many others.
This is a real eye opener to agents that count on personal lines business. This isn\’t going away and independent agents will be used less and less for the purchase of personal lines policies.
This is the way I see it. If you are an insurance buyer shopping around for car or home insurance you can go to a bunch of different company websites or call them, complete each one of their questionnaires, and then decide which one to go with. Or/and you can go to an independent agent complete one questionnaire, get multiple companies quotes all at once, get unbiased information about each companies quote, and make a decision.
The customers will decide who wins.
Unfortunately… this is a sign of the times. I have a feeling that many other insurers are researching this method of insurance sales. It only makes sense to the insurer; reduce the insurance companies expenses and even law suits. As an internet buyer, you are responsible to read the contract, choose your coverage\’s and decline optional coverage\’s, insureds will no longer have an agent to scream at or point the finger at or even sue. I\’ve been in insurance sales for more years than I care to mention and I\’ve made up my mind to get out now. It\’s bad enough that all the major insurers are turning to outsourcing thier customer service employment positions to other countries!
Hmmmm, let\’s see. Could this work? All independent agents roll their Safeco books now and watch Safeco wallow in mediocrity for the next two to three years. Then, those same independent agents \”Drive\” their Progressive book to another carrier and let them live with the adverse selection that a telephone operator can gather in for them. Finally, when they come calling looking for their new app committments, ask the rep to go online to your website, scroll down to the remarks section, and ask for an appointment to visit. I know it is wishful thinking, but if we don\’t all do something like this soon, other carriers will be prompted to do the same thing.
What do you guys make of GEICO becoming a switch hitter?
We came from the American States side of the fence, and my view is that Safeco has destroyed what had been a truly brilliant small business carrier. Safeco has been through our book like Sherman through Atlanta. Tracking that book that we\’ve had to rewrite, we have a four-year loss ratio in the twenties, so how brilliant is that as an underwriting strategy?
Truth is, we\’re pretty well stuck with our carriers being in competition with us. Frankly, while that upsets me, I am more disturbed when CEOs tell us how wonderful it is for agents whne they go direct, it is infuriating. LaRocco\’s a pretty straight shooter in my estimation, but Safeco\’s spin on this is worthy of James Carville.
That said, we continue to use carriers like Safeco when warranted, but we tend to drive our elite business to exclusively agent-driven carriers like Old Dominion and Auto Owners these days. I have long told carriers, as far back as Progressive\’s foray into direct marketing, that if they would put the resources into their agencies that they put into their direct marketing, we would make them more money. Very few carriers listen, but those that do will see my best clients.
Long term, it is my belief that you are seeing a race toward mediocrity. Hartford, Safeco, Progressive, and similar carriers will become completely undifferentiated from one another, while those that still carefully tend their crop of professional agents will stand out.
The demise of the agent has been predicted for fifty years. Fundamentally, man is a social animal, though, and usually prefer to deal with another human, assuming the service he gets is reasonable. If your agency does a good job, you\’re going to grow. If not, you\’ll need to update the resume. It\’s Darwinism.
These days size matters. You snooze, you lose. I agree that if carriers ended their adversarial posture toward their own agents, they\’d be better off.
SAFECO appointed a bunch of marginal SR22 mills a few years back to capture dollars in order to float the company for a while. Then they came out with the \”virtual producer\” which produced virtually nothing of consequence. Now they\’ll be spending millions on advertising and to staff a service center to pick up single-car auto insurance.
The only bonus is that agents will benefit vicariously from the name recognition created by the advertising. Finally, carriers will, like AIG and Progressive, will spend some money to tell people there are more companies than GEICO, Nationwide, State Farm and Allstate. The problem is that they are doing it to take our business.