We sell MetLife Home and Auto Insurance. A lack of Home and Auto Insurance business is due to not being competitive with other Carriers. MetLife Home and Auto is very niche in what they will write.
Met seems to rely on group business for their volume not on individual people. Also their HO product imposes a percentage “wind deductible” on every home policy that i have seen even if the home is inland with no costal exposure. Pricing is very high too
Life Companies should stick to Life and P&C should stick with P&C. I remember when Safeco had a Life Company and later sold it to Symetra to concentrate on P&C. It is hard to work both sides of the street. Personally, I have never bumped into Met for a single HO or Personal Auto so I have no idea whether they are competitive or not.
Hmmmmm. Seems I made the same exact analogy on another thread and was verbally flogged and insulted by you for it. You talk out of both sides of your mouth, Agent Bossman.
Wrong again Libby. You said Agents couldn’t do both. I do agree that Life Agents are a different breed and do not transition to P&C well, but it is not that hard to do Life & Health with a competent Independent Agent. I know several that are highly successful doing both and they don’t have a dedicated L&H department either. I will be glad to flog you when you need it liberal Libby, the employee from hell.
LOL! Even you can’t spin that enough! You CAN’T do both well or the majority of agents would be doing it. And THEY AREN’T. You don’t know what you’re talking about, as usual. Bossman from Hell.
It sounds to me like the company either has rates too high or too low of a commission to make the sale worthwhile. Better for them to look at these than beating the agents over the head.
I agree with Agent. I started in the business at Metlife. They originated the P&C business as a way of making it easier for their captive life agents to get in front of people to sell life insurance. Life agents have a completely different orientation and personality traits than do P&C agents. P&C agents cover what I term “nouns” and life people insure what I term “verbs”. With life, there is only one cause of loss and one claim. The life person covers the consequences of death. P&C agents are covering direct physical loss, and third party liability. We have Metlife as a P&C market. Their underwriting is tough, and I suspect it is based on the experience derived from their captive force who take life applications with no binding authority, where they need to be detectives. Service is good, contract language is good – much better than typical captive companies, rates are mediocre.
I was solicited by Met a few years ago to sell their Home & Auto. I already had 5 Standards which were hard to feed, so I politely declined. We have all seen how Captives such as State Farm, Allstate and Farmers Group have struggled recently. They only have one market to quote and if they aren’t competitive, they have to send the business down the street or the customer just leaves. I am glad I am Independent and have several to go to. It is still very challenging even with comparative raters.
Especially challenging IF the homeowner is within 1,500 feet of ANY water! It’s getting ridiculous! I am NOT talking about people who want to live ON the beach!
Finally, my advice to Metlife for P&C: Either get rid of your field force and go all IA, or get rid of your P&C company. Anyone that is successful at selling life insurance should not be bogged down managing and servicing a book of P&C business.
If Met has closed down most of their coastal counties , and that happens to be where the homes are it is easy to see why we have no growth. Autos tend to be packaged with the homes. Try to reenter this coastal market and I’ll put a few million profitable premium dollars on the books.
jw, your comment about Independent Agents being bi-polar was totally rude, uncalled for and you should be ashamed of yourself. Independent Agents like myself are professional, offer great service, work hard to help customers with their protection needs and have a substantial volume of business on the books. You must be one of those “company” people that have had run ins with Independent agents who took your business away.
By the way, that’s a different jw…. I think that jw may be an agent. I am not an agent – I am an accountant. Next time you argue with me on one of the other articles, don’t try slamming me with that garabage the other jw says.
Wait until the insurance companies start DENYING homeowners coverage because your roof is 15 years old! Can’t wait to see what’s going to happen when that takes effect!
JW – Historically inaccurate. Yes, they bought a book of personal insurance from Crum & Forster as their entre into the IA distribution channel. They did NOT purchase USF&G, St Paul did. St Paul then sold their personal lines book to Metlife. I do agree that Metlife has not adapted well to a IA orientation, but with 7,500 captive life agents who might also be pushing P&C, you might understand why. When I was a captive at Met, I saw how agents would “stretch” the truth on life apps – heavy people became taller and thinner on the apps – and I also witnessed auto policies where the youthful operators were conveniently left off the application. I can understand the jaded perspective of their underwriters.
Have represented Met for years and they are not that competitive. They are about 4th in our agency for auto and home. They require you to write package only. If they want market share they better spend the advertising money of Allstate and GEICO and lower their rates. They need to be more agent friendly also. This business isn’t rocket science. You either go after an a niche or you have competitive rates or both.
Bob, denying coverage or refusing to write the HO? Your answer isn’t clear so I’m just asking which you mean. Shouldn’t the insurer receive an accurate age of the roof (using outside metrics seems to be the up and coming way) to determine if they should write the coverage at all or write the roof on an ACV basis? Why should homeowners get a new roof when damage occurs to a very old roof? Shouldn’t the homeowner expect to pay some portion of that?
From what I am hearing from my sources, if your roof is 15 years or older, certain insurance companies in CT are going to refuse to write the policy! Yes, an insurer should know the age of the roof. I understand that there is a website where an insurance company can go and look at the date of the building permit for a roof in question.
If a homeowner buys a roof with a 30 year warranty, I would think that the manufacturer of the roof would have some liability and not necessarily just the insurance company. I believe roofs have a wind resistance up to X number of MPH!
Adjustor, in some wind/hail areas, companies like Allstate are already writing roofs on ACV basis no matter how old it is. This may test their claims satisfaction guarantee, don’t you think?
I note that you take a clear view of claims and a very institutionalized view of claims. I hope you can continue to take that view here as it is not a good comment for the claims or regulatory of the claims operation.
Over a year ago I had roof damage to my home. It resulted in a hole. I reported it and they sent a person out to view it. I also gained several estimates. the insurance then forwarded me papers that I believe showed the replacement cost of a cedar shake roof of 28 squares at $ 16,000. They they applied the $ 500 deductible and the deprecation.Thus providing a payable under the policy of $ 12,000.
I then called the company and they agreed tha I could send them an estimate I had. $ 32,000 for the roof. The company then called and advised that they spoke to the roofer and he agreed to do my roof for $ 16,000. The problem was that when I sought to confirm this with the roofer he said no. So there I was it took me a year to nudge the insurance company to pay me another $ 12,000. In that time I had few contacts with them. I spoke to the regulatory agencies and I found them to be useless, actually negative (PA Insurance Department, Attorney General). We could very well save the money to fund them and we would be better off.
They still have not paid me the full amount of the claim by $ 8,000.
What do you suggest? There is a fraud by the insurer, there is certainly bad faith and in this case the usual claim procedures were not followed.
I hate to tell you this Stephen, but most carriers avoid Cedar Shake shingled roofs like the plague. They tend to burn easily with a minor lightning strike or a bottle rocket at the 4th of July. It is best to have a good 30 year heavy duty roof. We call those with Architectural Shingles. They are attractive and very durable. Mine is 12 years old and looks like it did the day they put it on. I think you need a new company if they have jacked you around this long on a roof claim. Was it Met or someone else?
We sell MetLife Home and Auto Insurance. A lack of Home and Auto Insurance business is due to not being competitive with other Carriers. MetLife Home and Auto is very niche in what they will write.
Met seems to rely on group business for their volume not on individual people. Also their HO product imposes a percentage “wind deductible” on every home policy that i have seen even if the home is inland with no costal exposure. Pricing is very high too
Wind is not only a coastal problem. We have wind/hail percentage deductibles here.
As my brother would have said, “There’s a lot more elegant ways to say that.”
Life Companies should stick to Life and P&C should stick with P&C. I remember when Safeco had a Life Company and later sold it to Symetra to concentrate on P&C. It is hard to work both sides of the street. Personally, I have never bumped into Met for a single HO or Personal Auto so I have no idea whether they are competitive or not.
Hmmmmm. Seems I made the same exact analogy on another thread and was verbally flogged and insulted by you for it. You talk out of both sides of your mouth, Agent Bossman.
Wrong again Libby. You said Agents couldn’t do both. I do agree that Life Agents are a different breed and do not transition to P&C well, but it is not that hard to do Life & Health with a competent Independent Agent. I know several that are highly successful doing both and they don’t have a dedicated L&H department either. I will be glad to flog you when you need it liberal Libby, the employee from hell.
LOL! Even you can’t spin that enough! You CAN’T do both well or the majority of agents would be doing it. And THEY AREN’T. You don’t know what you’re talking about, as usual. Bossman from Hell.
It sounds to me like the company either has rates too high or too low of a commission to make the sale worthwhile. Better for them to look at these than beating the agents over the head.
I am amazed at this article, for so many reasons.
I agree with Agent. I started in the business at Metlife. They originated the P&C business as a way of making it easier for their captive life agents to get in front of people to sell life insurance. Life agents have a completely different orientation and personality traits than do P&C agents. P&C agents cover what I term “nouns” and life people insure what I term “verbs”. With life, there is only one cause of loss and one claim. The life person covers the consequences of death. P&C agents are covering direct physical loss, and third party liability. We have Metlife as a P&C market. Their underwriting is tough, and I suspect it is based on the experience derived from their captive force who take life applications with no binding authority, where they need to be detectives. Service is good, contract language is good – much better than typical captive companies, rates are mediocre.
I was solicited by Met a few years ago to sell their Home & Auto. I already had 5 Standards which were hard to feed, so I politely declined. We have all seen how Captives such as State Farm, Allstate and Farmers Group have struggled recently. They only have one market to quote and if they aren’t competitive, they have to send the business down the street or the customer just leaves. I am glad I am Independent and have several to go to. It is still very challenging even with comparative raters.
Especially challenging IF the homeowner is within 1,500 feet of ANY water! It’s getting ridiculous! I am NOT talking about people who want to live ON the beach!
Finally, my advice to Metlife for P&C: Either get rid of your field force and go all IA, or get rid of your P&C company. Anyone that is successful at selling life insurance should not be bogged down managing and servicing a book of P&C business.
If Met has closed down most of their coastal counties , and that happens to be where the homes are it is easy to see why we have no growth. Autos tend to be packaged with the homes. Try to reenter this coastal market and I’ll put a few million profitable premium dollars on the books.
Most of their volume is from purchased companies. They bought the USFG and some other companies but didn’t understand the bipolar independent agent.
jw, your comment about Independent Agents being bi-polar was totally rude, uncalled for and you should be ashamed of yourself. Independent Agents like myself are professional, offer great service, work hard to help customers with their protection needs and have a substantial volume of business on the books. You must be one of those “company” people that have had run ins with Independent agents who took your business away.
By the way, that’s a different jw…. I think that jw may be an agent. I am not an agent – I am an accountant. Next time you argue with me on one of the other articles, don’t try slamming me with that garabage the other jw says.
just sayin’
One of you needs a new moniker so we can tell the difference. By the way, my accountant doesn’t think I am bi-polar. Just sayin’.
USF&G was bought by the St. Paul many years ago…and they belong to Travelers (in case you were wondering)
St. Paul sold their P/L book to MetLife (remember Snoopy??) In case you were wondering.
Wait until the insurance companies start DENYING homeowners coverage because your roof is 15 years old! Can’t wait to see what’s going to happen when that takes effect!
JW – Historically inaccurate. Yes, they bought a book of personal insurance from Crum & Forster as their entre into the IA distribution channel. They did NOT purchase USF&G, St Paul did. St Paul then sold their personal lines book to Metlife. I do agree that Metlife has not adapted well to a IA orientation, but with 7,500 captive life agents who might also be pushing P&C, you might understand why. When I was a captive at Met, I saw how agents would “stretch” the truth on life apps – heavy people became taller and thinner on the apps – and I also witnessed auto policies where the youthful operators were conveniently left off the application. I can understand the jaded perspective of their underwriters.
Have represented Met for years and they are not that competitive. They are about 4th in our agency for auto and home. They require you to write package only. If they want market share they better spend the advertising money of Allstate and GEICO and lower their rates. They need to be more agent friendly also. This business isn’t rocket science. You either go after an a niche or you have competitive rates or both.
Bob, denying coverage or refusing to write the HO? Your answer isn’t clear so I’m just asking which you mean. Shouldn’t the insurer receive an accurate age of the roof (using outside metrics seems to be the up and coming way) to determine if they should write the coverage at all or write the roof on an ACV basis? Why should homeowners get a new roof when damage occurs to a very old roof? Shouldn’t the homeowner expect to pay some portion of that?
From what I am hearing from my sources, if your roof is 15 years or older, certain insurance companies in CT are going to refuse to write the policy! Yes, an insurer should know the age of the roof. I understand that there is a website where an insurance company can go and look at the date of the building permit for a roof in question.
If a homeowner buys a roof with a 30 year warranty, I would think that the manufacturer of the roof would have some liability and not necessarily just the insurance company. I believe roofs have a wind resistance up to X number of MPH!
Adjustor, in some wind/hail areas, companies like Allstate are already writing roofs on ACV basis no matter how old it is. This may test their claims satisfaction guarantee, don’t you think?
I note that you take a clear view of claims and a very institutionalized view of claims. I hope you can continue to take that view here as it is not a good comment for the claims or regulatory of the claims operation.
Over a year ago I had roof damage to my home. It resulted in a hole. I reported it and they sent a person out to view it. I also gained several estimates. the insurance then forwarded me papers that I believe showed the replacement cost of a cedar shake roof of 28 squares at $ 16,000. They they applied the $ 500 deductible and the deprecation.Thus providing a payable under the policy of $ 12,000.
I then called the company and they agreed tha I could send them an estimate I had. $ 32,000 for the roof. The company then called and advised that they spoke to the roofer and he agreed to do my roof for $ 16,000. The problem was that when I sought to confirm this with the roofer he said no. So there I was it took me a year to nudge the insurance company to pay me another $ 12,000. In that time I had few contacts with them. I spoke to the regulatory agencies and I found them to be useless, actually negative (PA Insurance Department, Attorney General). We could very well save the money to fund them and we would be better off.
They still have not paid me the full amount of the claim by $ 8,000.
What do you suggest? There is a fraud by the insurer, there is certainly bad faith and in this case the usual claim procedures were not followed.
I hate to tell you this Stephen, but most carriers avoid Cedar Shake shingled roofs like the plague. They tend to burn easily with a minor lightning strike or a bottle rocket at the 4th of July. It is best to have a good 30 year heavy duty roof. We call those with Architectural Shingles. They are attractive and very durable. Mine is 12 years old and looks like it did the day they put it on. I think you need a new company if they have jacked you around this long on a roof claim. Was it Met or someone else?