The banks have no right getting in the insurance business. They can’t get the banking business right, can you imagine the banks trying to service clients when it comes to insurance. They’ll probably want to apply a charge every time you want an auto ID card or binder issued.
Yes, I never really understood this concept. Many people have banking relationships out of necessity and there’s really no great desire to expand it. Not sure they want to patronize the bank for any other products. Maybe it works but not from my viewpoint.
The concept of cross selling by banks of P/C insurance is not new and , thus far, has not produced results that are meaningful to a banks financial statement.I don’t know why they bother. As demonstrated in the past, banks love risk, perhaps too much risk,ergo, perhaps they would be better buying insurance comapnies? Hummm…reminders of travelers/citigroup…wasn’t that successful..
Don’t worry… I don’t think WFIS considers you their competition. They aren’t aggressively going after random walk-in personal lines clients. They’re working with middle market and larger commercial customers. And they’re doing very well at it, as they’re the 5th largest retail insurance brokerage in the world now, behind only AON, Willis, Marsh, and Gallagher.
If you aren’t aware of what they’re doing, I have a feeling you’re likely not targeting the same customers.
I used to work for a carrier that only saw competition from them for exactly what you are saying, the middle market and larger commercial customers. However, I do bank with WF and often get requests when I sign in to my account to consider letting them give me a quote for auto insurance. I’m not saying you are wrong, just asking for your thoughts on that. That’s probably just small potatoes for them anyways?
Yeah, sorry, I said that wrong. We worked with their agency and I noticed they only had a lot of large risks…when I meant we lost to them…i meant they didn’t place with us. :)
Lets see if we can walk this statement a little farther towards reality:
1. WFIS hasnt grown in any year since bank took over management. Business has been on decline every year
2. WFIS is basically a middle market broker, adding layers of management that add little. They all just stroke each other pretending to be something they arent.
3. Wells has a funny way of reporting revenue as brokerage revenue. Back out all the life, accident , credit insurance, crop insurance all direct sales to customers by the bank, I think you proabaly drop to number 10 if your lucky.
4. Given Wells negative organic growth, its more likely “we’re not aware of what they are doing” because they arent doing very much.
WFIS took a bath last time they aggressively pursued P/C agencies, so no, they don’t want that to happen again. This is not really news that they are in the market. EVERY large broker is looking to buy agencies (or more accurately, their books of business). The questions is how much will they pay? Right now agencies are a lot of like homes.. they don’t have the value they did 5 years ago so owners are holding tight and waiting for 2005 to come back.
wells does own a company – rural community in insurance that is the US largest writer of the taxpayer heavily subsidized crop insurance. wf crop agencies not big players in crop insurance market.
Wells Fargo has cost its shareholders a loss of over 17% in the past 5 years, even with their availing themselves of all the Federal bailout programs. The biggest of which is their ability to borrow at
near zero from the Fed & to pay us near zero on our own money!
I am sure they will bring that same level of “expertise” to the insurance biz.
If the banks like WF have retail agencies, why do they use surplus lines to force place coverage? They should be able to hand it to their insurance division and do it in house for a reasonable rate. Or even have master policies to move risks off and on as needed. JMHO… and one of my pet peeves…
Because ‘Forced Placed’ coverage is for people who didnt buy their own insurance in the first place. The client actually has to facilitate the purchase of their own policy. Hence the reason their coverage was ‘forced placed’. It makes me happy to see by the comments here that most agents dont know their competition all that well.
“the bank will be “very, very careful” on not paying too much for any purchases.”
If I were to sell to Wells Fargo or any bank, They would have to put me on lay away!
Didn’t the banks take a bath after buying all those agencies when they found out they couldn’t service their way out of a paper bag?
The banks have no right getting in the insurance business. They can’t get the banking business right, can you imagine the banks trying to service clients when it comes to insurance. They’ll probably want to apply a charge every time you want an auto ID card or binder issued.
Yes, I never really understood this concept. Many people have banking relationships out of necessity and there’s really no great desire to expand it. Not sure they want to patronize the bank for any other products. Maybe it works but not from my viewpoint.
The concept of cross selling by banks of P/C insurance is not new and , thus far, has not produced results that are meaningful to a banks financial statement.I don’t know why they bother. As demonstrated in the past, banks love risk, perhaps too much risk,ergo, perhaps they would be better buying insurance comapnies? Hummm…reminders of travelers/citigroup…wasn’t that successful..
Don’t worry… I don’t think WFIS considers you their competition. They aren’t aggressively going after random walk-in personal lines clients. They’re working with middle market and larger commercial customers. And they’re doing very well at it, as they’re the 5th largest retail insurance brokerage in the world now, behind only AON, Willis, Marsh, and Gallagher.
If you aren’t aware of what they’re doing, I have a feeling you’re likely not targeting the same customers.
I used to work for a carrier that only saw competition from them for exactly what you are saying, the middle market and larger commercial customers. However, I do bank with WF and often get requests when I sign in to my account to consider letting them give me a quote for auto insurance. I’m not saying you are wrong, just asking for your thoughts on that. That’s probably just small potatoes for them anyways?
That’s all done by a customer service center. There are no boots on the ground trying to sell you a $431 auto policy.
And if you worked for a carrier… they shouldn’t be competing with you? They’re not taking risk, they’re placing it.
Yeah, sorry, I said that wrong. We worked with their agency and I noticed they only had a lot of large risks…when I meant we lost to them…i meant they didn’t place with us. :)
Lets see if we can walk this statement a little farther towards reality:
1. WFIS hasnt grown in any year since bank took over management. Business has been on decline every year
2. WFIS is basically a middle market broker, adding layers of management that add little. They all just stroke each other pretending to be something they arent.
3. Wells has a funny way of reporting revenue as brokerage revenue. Back out all the life, accident , credit insurance, crop insurance all direct sales to customers by the bank, I think you proabaly drop to number 10 if your lucky.
4. Given Wells negative organic growth, its more likely “we’re not aware of what they are doing” because they arent doing very much.
Here we go again!
WFIS took a bath last time they aggressively pursued P/C agencies, so no, they don’t want that to happen again. This is not really news that they are in the market. EVERY large broker is looking to buy agencies (or more accurately, their books of business). The questions is how much will they pay? Right now agencies are a lot of like homes.. they don’t have the value they did 5 years ago so owners are holding tight and waiting for 2005 to come back.
wells does own a company – rural community in insurance that is the US largest writer of the taxpayer heavily subsidized crop insurance. wf crop agencies not big players in crop insurance market.
Hopefully they will buy USI and save from this misery
Wells Fargo has cost its shareholders a loss of over 17% in the past 5 years, even with their availing themselves of all the Federal bailout programs. The biggest of which is their ability to borrow at
near zero from the Fed & to pay us near zero on our own money!
I am sure they will bring that same level of “expertise” to the insurance biz.
If the banks like WF have retail agencies, why do they use surplus lines to force place coverage? They should be able to hand it to their insurance division and do it in house for a reasonable rate. Or even have master policies to move risks off and on as needed. JMHO… and one of my pet peeves…
Because ‘Forced Placed’ coverage is for people who didnt buy their own insurance in the first place. The client actually has to facilitate the purchase of their own policy. Hence the reason their coverage was ‘forced placed’. It makes me happy to see by the comments here that most agents dont know their competition all that well.