Fishman said. “If you look and see what we’ve done and what we’ve announced, it doesn’t take a real genius to see what we’re doing and what the next generation of leadership here is.”
First off let me say that I do not like to see anyone suffer from any medical ailment, including Jay Fishman. On a personal level, my heart goes out to him and his family.
On a business level, he has led his company down the path of alienating the agents that have carried Travelers on their backs all these years. Reducing commissions, terminating appointments, instituting quotas on independent agents, and the list goes on and on. I hope that when he speaks of the “next generation of leadership”, I really hope that the next leaders will see the error in Travelers’ ways.
Jay, even though the agents and Travelers have our differences, we wish you well.
Insurance is a commodity Paying high commissions and working with a bunch of agents can be a money loser. While wanting both speaks to your position of being an insurance agent wanting more commissions, I trust Fishman did what makes sense for a carrier.
Gee Wayne, I wonder how Travelers managed to be almost a $6 Billion company with money losing agents representing them. I wonder how they managed to buy a Canadian company for about $1.2 Billion last year dealing with loser agents. They just announced better profitability for 14. They have been one of our unfriendlier companies for years. Higher commissions you say? How about reduced commissions for years. They even break down commissions on an annual policy and pay us piecemeal every month. No other carrier we represent does that. As a result of taking rate and reducing commissions, our book has shrunk by over 1/3 in the last 4 years. Our other markets are the beneficiary of a lot of good business.
Yes, Agent, Travelers has been in the news each quarter touting its record profits. All made on the backs of their supposed “partners” – their agents.
I’m in very large regional agency and we’ve moved almost all of our Travelers business. Good riddance with attitudes as displayed by the carrier folks on this site.
Libby, at one time Travelers was our largest Personal Lines carrier. They are struggling to be our third now. We have done some good things on the Commercial side with many varied programs to access and the Commercial side is well above the Personal now on volume. We have to keep them, but we have to deal with issues all the time.
January 23, 2015 at 1:39 pm
insuranceguy says:
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clearly agent14 wants his cake and wants to eat it too. I’m not sure if today’s agents are disillusioned or just plain ignorant, but with the the financial crisis causing low yeilds in investment income, carriers are being forced to find ways to still provide a quality product at an affordable price. If that means agents have to take a haircut, so be it. Gone are the days of carriers making 12% to 18% investment income while running at 105% loss ratios. Travelers may be the first to do this, but they won’t be the last. It’s the only way that agency companies can help agents compete against direct writers who aren’t paying agents to write the business.
Wake up agents… the insurance world is changing, and if you don’t learn how to adapt, it will be you left with egg on your face.
Lastly, in Travelers defense, despite what they have done to commissions, they have not diminished the promise they have made to their agents and insureds and still provide some of the best claim service in the industry.
You company guys take the cake, let alone letting us eat some of it! You’d be nowhere without your agents. And let me tell you another thing, Traveler may have done what they needed to but so did we. We moved the business to another carrier that wanted a partnership and not a dictatorship. You need to stay where you are – in the land of no. Agents can’t say no. We have to find a way to get it done. You wouldn’t last an hour, let along a day in our shoes.
Must be those pesky actuaries doing their black box algorithms again to pass on all those rate increases making the company uncompetitive, then dump on the agents producing the business by reducing commissions just to sell the brand.
Having a health issue doesn’t mean one should sit at home and do nothing. Work is therapeutic to many. But thanks for discriminating against him and thinking he shouldn’t be at work.
There was no discrimination in my comment whatsoever. I never met one person on their deathbed that regretted not working more.
All I can say is I’d feel sorry for your family, but I don’t. I’d rather you be at work than at home making my life miserable. I guess I feel sorry for your co-workers.
We have reduced our book with Travelers as well as a result of them taking aggressive rate with no ability to discuss the merits of quality renewal accounts. It’s like talking to a computer. They shoot themselves in the foot like this a lot. They are a quality company for sure but if the only business they keep is the stuff no one else will write for less than their price (which is higher than the market), that’s a recipe for selection against the company.
I always find it humorous, when a company employee pops off about how agents get too much commission, and that agents should be glad to give more back to the company. My take, is I get to choose which company I place my customers with. If a company pays me 15% commission for enticing me to place business with that company, I am actually giving the receiving company 85% of my commission! The company would not have received the business if I had not placed my client with them. What is the problem?
Hey lonestar, how do you think Travelers is doing by offering direct quotes to the public through their website? I had the Travelers rep tell me that any direct sales they make on Auto would be referred to the closest agent to pick up the Home. I have yet to get one referral from the direct sale so we could bundle the account. Something tells me this isn’t working out so well for them.
agent, by the way, Travelers has inside sales reps that have a quota on selling homes and cars. I do not know why Travelers would refer the home sale out to the agent, when Travelers has invested so much money in their Richardson Texas call center with inside sale reps. The reps have to convert a certain percent of their leads, or they are fired. I know someone that worked in the call center sales side. So it is curious why your rep would tell you that… :/
Looks like as agents we say one thing but do another-Travelers wouldn’t be writing the business and earning the huge profits they are if it weren’t for agents willingly going along with the whole thing. If every Travelers agent just reduced-not terminated them, but just reduced their writings with them by 15%, then I would positively guaranty that Travelers and all ther other carriers who seem to want to put the IA out of business would change their tune right away.
And it would be great if several carriers were to grow based upon the movement of business and provide real meaningful alternatives to those huge and usually unresponsive carriers who are growing at our expense.
I know it will never happen, but it would be kind of fun to see, right?
Sarcastically, I am not sure willingly going along with it describes the relationship between agents and Travelers. They make an edict like reducing commission or taking rate and we usually have to lump it or find another market that will treat us better. That is why many Travelers agents have reduced writings with them.
Yup, all of their agents have drastically reduced the amount of business they send to Travelers. That’s why their PPA written premium has grown so rapidly since they rolled out Quantum II with the lower commissions.
Their written premiums are up a total of 5%. Since they’re taking 10%+ in rate, they are losing market share. Profits area at a all-time high due to squeezing expenses. It won’t be long before the results of this short-sighted business model show themselves. I, for one, hope it is not pretty for them.
Well, speaking as a “Company Guy” myself, I couldn’t be happier with the decisions Travelers is making these days. Not a day goes by that I don’t have an agent complain about them or the other monster out there. It makes my job easy.
Sell service, claims, create a partnership and be the face of the company….it’s amazing how much agents just yearn for those simple things. Travelers needs to wise up….can’t ride the wave on name alone anymore.
Company guy, you sound a lot like Algorithm Ron. He said agents should sell service and claims even if the Travelers quote was the highest premium for identical coverage. Sell that brand and hope for the best. I have news for you dude. We compare all the carriers and we show the client how all the quotes look and let them make the choice. I haven’t had one customer pick that higher priced Travelers quote yet. When they get competitive, I don’t have a problem selling them. That has been about 5 years now and it is only marginally better than last year.
Travelers isn’t a monopoly @Agent-their numbers are showing that they are writing more business now as opposed to a year or even 2 years ago and are making more money then prior years.
Based on that, I’ve got to conclude that this isn’t hurting agents enough to get them to fire Travelers or even move business to another carrier that pays a more respectable commision level.
And its not exactly like anyone is raving about how wonderful they handle claims so I’ve got to conclude that this is ok for most agents who have Travelers in their shop.
Yes it takes time and money to remarket that business, but if your new commission is higher by even a couple or 3 points, then you will make that up in about 2 years if you keep 85% of what you remarket-and if you do a deal with a competitor you might be able to negotiate a book roll at the same time.
Yes, amused. Let me be Sarcastic as well. Yes, the agents just love their reduced commissions on Auto & Home and just love them piece mealing commissions out on every monthly statement. We love it so much that our writings are down by a full third in the past few years, meanwhile our other carriers are enjoying their new found volume increase.
Amused: Don’t get “written premiums are up” confused with “their writing more business.” Written premiums are up only 5%. Their average rate increase (that I’ve seen anyway) is +10%. That means they are losing market share. In addition, profits are at an all-time high because they are laying off employees, reducing commissions, and squeezing expenses. This short-sighted business plan is a long-term recipe for disaster. And it couldn’t happen to a better carrier. Travelers sucks.
Libby, I am right there with you. Travelers has a huge vacuum effect. I hope their stock price takes a dive soon. There was no reason for them to go hostile toward the agents. RIP Travelers.
14, We actually have a good marketing rep with Travelers. Every time she comes to see us, she apologizes for the company when we have voiced our concerns. They have been very slow to make any changes to their approach to writing and retaining business and has the lowest retention rate of all our Personal Lines carriers. I wonder why.
Agent, you are lucky to have a rep that does not threaten to terminate you code for a various number of reasons that I only used to hear on the captive side: “Quote to issue % too low.” “Monthly written quota not met”. “You are writing the wrong types of clients”. “No matter how much less commission we pay, YOU WILL write “X” policies per month, increase your retention, improve your quote / issue ratio, and you will sell the “value” of Travelers, or off with your head.
14, you must have a very bad rep. I have never heard that from Travelers since we have had them. Having said that, our female rep is moving to a new territory and is being replaced by a guy and we may not like what he has to say. They seem to realize their algorithms were way off, took too much rate and when quotes and renewals were bad, they finally woke up when the business started declining with us and other agents.
Agent, I hope I am wrong but I think it is a bad sign when Travelers changes reps. Makes it easier for them to play the good cop / bad cop routine. And I think the behavior to the agents originated higher than the field reps, and goes all the way to the head marketing guys on a state level. All the reps in my state are giving the same measurement of “captive” grief to all agents. Might be different for now in your state. I wish you luck.
Well, I hope you are wrong with rep changing to the bad cop. All we know is he is moving from handling the another Texas territory to our territory. I sent him an email welcoming him to our area, but he hasn’t replied. I suppose he is busy transitioning. We will see what he has to say and see if he is demanding or not. Luckily for us, we have several markets to use and many are interested in growth now.
Agent, all I have to say is I hope your new rep’s last name does not start with an M and end with a N. If so, unless the new Regional Travelers Marketing VP has changed marching orders, you better strap in and get ready to be treated like a captive. I am all too familiar with this rep’s tactics.
14, perhaps I got lucky. The new Rep’s name starts with a G and ends with an N. They had better not be too hard on us. We have the facts on our side and have shown them several times why they aren’t winning more in the marketplace.
Agent, I hope the new rep’s first name is not Greg. With this rep, his approach has been “Don’t confuse me with the facts, if you don’t meet your monthly quota, you are done.”
Fishman said. “If you look and see what we’ve done and what we’ve announced, it doesn’t take a real genius to see what we’re doing and what the next generation of leadership here is.”
First off let me say that I do not like to see anyone suffer from any medical ailment, including Jay Fishman. On a personal level, my heart goes out to him and his family.
On a business level, he has led his company down the path of alienating the agents that have carried Travelers on their backs all these years. Reducing commissions, terminating appointments, instituting quotas on independent agents, and the list goes on and on. I hope that when he speaks of the “next generation of leadership”, I really hope that the next leaders will see the error in Travelers’ ways.
Jay, even though the agents and Travelers have our differences, we wish you well.
Insurance is a commodity Paying high commissions and working with a bunch of agents can be a money loser. While wanting both speaks to your position of being an insurance agent wanting more commissions, I trust Fishman did what makes sense for a carrier.
Gee Wayne, I wonder how Travelers managed to be almost a $6 Billion company with money losing agents representing them. I wonder how they managed to buy a Canadian company for about $1.2 Billion last year dealing with loser agents. They just announced better profitability for 14. They have been one of our unfriendlier companies for years. Higher commissions you say? How about reduced commissions for years. They even break down commissions on an annual policy and pay us piecemeal every month. No other carrier we represent does that. As a result of taking rate and reducing commissions, our book has shrunk by over 1/3 in the last 4 years. Our other markets are the beneficiary of a lot of good business.
Yes, Agent, Travelers has been in the news each quarter touting its record profits. All made on the backs of their supposed “partners” – their agents.
I’m in very large regional agency and we’ve moved almost all of our Travelers business. Good riddance with attitudes as displayed by the carrier folks on this site.
Libby, at one time Travelers was our largest Personal Lines carrier. They are struggling to be our third now. We have done some good things on the Commercial side with many varied programs to access and the Commercial side is well above the Personal now on volume. We have to keep them, but we have to deal with issues all the time.
clearly agent14 wants his cake and wants to eat it too. I’m not sure if today’s agents are disillusioned or just plain ignorant, but with the the financial crisis causing low yeilds in investment income, carriers are being forced to find ways to still provide a quality product at an affordable price. If that means agents have to take a haircut, so be it. Gone are the days of carriers making 12% to 18% investment income while running at 105% loss ratios. Travelers may be the first to do this, but they won’t be the last. It’s the only way that agency companies can help agents compete against direct writers who aren’t paying agents to write the business.
Wake up agents… the insurance world is changing, and if you don’t learn how to adapt, it will be you left with egg on your face.
Lastly, in Travelers defense, despite what they have done to commissions, they have not diminished the promise they have made to their agents and insureds and still provide some of the best claim service in the industry.
You company guys take the cake, let alone letting us eat some of it! You’d be nowhere without your agents. And let me tell you another thing, Traveler may have done what they needed to but so did we. We moved the business to another carrier that wanted a partnership and not a dictatorship. You need to stay where you are – in the land of no. Agents can’t say no. We have to find a way to get it done. You wouldn’t last an hour, let along a day in our shoes.
Must be those pesky actuaries doing their black box algorithms again to pass on all those rate increases making the company uncompetitive, then dump on the agents producing the business by reducing commissions just to sell the brand.
He would be better served to cut back on everything but time with his family at this point. Travelers will live on long after Fishman.
Having a health issue doesn’t mean one should sit at home and do nothing. Work is therapeutic to many. But thanks for discriminating against him and thinking he shouldn’t be at work.
There was no discrimination in my comment whatsoever. I never met one person on their deathbed that regretted not working more.
All I can say is I’d feel sorry for your family, but I don’t. I’d rather you be at work than at home making my life miserable. I guess I feel sorry for your co-workers.
“…he’s limiting duties beyond the insurer ‘to focus relentlessly on what matters here,'”
Really, at the end of the day what matters most is insurance?
According to wayne smith.
We have reduced our book with Travelers as well as a result of them taking aggressive rate with no ability to discuss the merits of quality renewal accounts. It’s like talking to a computer. They shoot themselves in the foot like this a lot. They are a quality company for sure but if the only business they keep is the stuff no one else will write for less than their price (which is higher than the market), that’s a recipe for selection against the company.
There are plenty of other quality carriers that want to do business. We don’t need Travelers to succeed. Great way to show your gratitude, Travelers.
I always find it humorous, when a company employee pops off about how agents get too much commission, and that agents should be glad to give more back to the company. My take, is I get to choose which company I place my customers with. If a company pays me 15% commission for enticing me to place business with that company, I am actually giving the receiving company 85% of my commission! The company would not have received the business if I had not placed my client with them. What is the problem?
Hey lonestar, how do you think Travelers is doing by offering direct quotes to the public through their website? I had the Travelers rep tell me that any direct sales they make on Auto would be referred to the closest agent to pick up the Home. I have yet to get one referral from the direct sale so we could bundle the account. Something tells me this isn’t working out so well for them.
agent, by the way, Travelers has inside sales reps that have a quota on selling homes and cars. I do not know why Travelers would refer the home sale out to the agent, when Travelers has invested so much money in their Richardson Texas call center with inside sale reps. The reps have to convert a certain percent of their leads, or they are fired. I know someone that worked in the call center sales side. So it is curious why your rep would tell you that… :/
Looks like as agents we say one thing but do another-Travelers wouldn’t be writing the business and earning the huge profits they are if it weren’t for agents willingly going along with the whole thing. If every Travelers agent just reduced-not terminated them, but just reduced their writings with them by 15%, then I would positively guaranty that Travelers and all ther other carriers who seem to want to put the IA out of business would change their tune right away.
And it would be great if several carriers were to grow based upon the movement of business and provide real meaningful alternatives to those huge and usually unresponsive carriers who are growing at our expense.
I know it will never happen, but it would be kind of fun to see, right?
Sarcastically, I am not sure willingly going along with it describes the relationship between agents and Travelers. They make an edict like reducing commission or taking rate and we usually have to lump it or find another market that will treat us better. That is why many Travelers agents have reduced writings with them.
Agents that haven’t reduced their writings with Travelers are in the minority. Just ask any of us.
Yup! Drastically reduced.
Yup, all of their agents have drastically reduced the amount of business they send to Travelers. That’s why their PPA written premium has grown so rapidly since they rolled out Quantum II with the lower commissions.
Sorry about all the “mathiness.”
Their written premiums are up a total of 5%. Since they’re taking 10%+ in rate, they are losing market share. Profits area at a all-time high due to squeezing expenses. It won’t be long before the results of this short-sighted business model show themselves. I, for one, hope it is not pretty for them.
Well, speaking as a “Company Guy” myself, I couldn’t be happier with the decisions Travelers is making these days. Not a day goes by that I don’t have an agent complain about them or the other monster out there. It makes my job easy.
Sell service, claims, create a partnership and be the face of the company….it’s amazing how much agents just yearn for those simple things. Travelers needs to wise up….can’t ride the wave on name alone anymore.
Company guy, you sound a lot like Algorithm Ron. He said agents should sell service and claims even if the Travelers quote was the highest premium for identical coverage. Sell that brand and hope for the best. I have news for you dude. We compare all the carriers and we show the client how all the quotes look and let them make the choice. I haven’t had one customer pick that higher priced Travelers quote yet. When they get competitive, I don’t have a problem selling them. That has been about 5 years now and it is only marginally better than last year.
Travelers isn’t a monopoly @Agent-their numbers are showing that they are writing more business now as opposed to a year or even 2 years ago and are making more money then prior years.
Based on that, I’ve got to conclude that this isn’t hurting agents enough to get them to fire Travelers or even move business to another carrier that pays a more respectable commision level.
And its not exactly like anyone is raving about how wonderful they handle claims so I’ve got to conclude that this is ok for most agents who have Travelers in their shop.
Yes it takes time and money to remarket that business, but if your new commission is higher by even a couple or 3 points, then you will make that up in about 2 years if you keep 85% of what you remarket-and if you do a deal with a competitor you might be able to negotiate a book roll at the same time.
Yes, amused. Let me be Sarcastic as well. Yes, the agents just love their reduced commissions on Auto & Home and just love them piece mealing commissions out on every monthly statement. We love it so much that our writings are down by a full third in the past few years, meanwhile our other carriers are enjoying their new found volume increase.
Amused: Don’t get “written premiums are up” confused with “their writing more business.” Written premiums are up only 5%. Their average rate increase (that I’ve seen anyway) is +10%. That means they are losing market share. In addition, profits are at an all-time high because they are laying off employees, reducing commissions, and squeezing expenses. This short-sighted business plan is a long-term recipe for disaster. And it couldn’t happen to a better carrier. Travelers sucks.
Libby, I am right there with you. Travelers has a huge vacuum effect. I hope their stock price takes a dive soon. There was no reason for them to go hostile toward the agents. RIP Travelers.
14, We actually have a good marketing rep with Travelers. Every time she comes to see us, she apologizes for the company when we have voiced our concerns. They have been very slow to make any changes to their approach to writing and retaining business and has the lowest retention rate of all our Personal Lines carriers. I wonder why.
Agent, you are lucky to have a rep that does not threaten to terminate you code for a various number of reasons that I only used to hear on the captive side: “Quote to issue % too low.” “Monthly written quota not met”. “You are writing the wrong types of clients”. “No matter how much less commission we pay, YOU WILL write “X” policies per month, increase your retention, improve your quote / issue ratio, and you will sell the “value” of Travelers, or off with your head.
14, you must have a very bad rep. I have never heard that from Travelers since we have had them. Having said that, our female rep is moving to a new territory and is being replaced by a guy and we may not like what he has to say. They seem to realize their algorithms were way off, took too much rate and when quotes and renewals were bad, they finally woke up when the business started declining with us and other agents.
Agent, I hope I am wrong but I think it is a bad sign when Travelers changes reps. Makes it easier for them to play the good cop / bad cop routine. And I think the behavior to the agents originated higher than the field reps, and goes all the way to the head marketing guys on a state level. All the reps in my state are giving the same measurement of “captive” grief to all agents. Might be different for now in your state. I wish you luck.
Well, I hope you are wrong with rep changing to the bad cop. All we know is he is moving from handling the another Texas territory to our territory. I sent him an email welcoming him to our area, but he hasn’t replied. I suppose he is busy transitioning. We will see what he has to say and see if he is demanding or not. Luckily for us, we have several markets to use and many are interested in growth now.
Agent, all I have to say is I hope your new rep’s last name does not start with an M and end with a N. If so, unless the new Regional Travelers Marketing VP has changed marching orders, you better strap in and get ready to be treated like a captive. I am all too familiar with this rep’s tactics.
14, perhaps I got lucky. The new Rep’s name starts with a G and ends with an N. They had better not be too hard on us. We have the facts on our side and have shown them several times why they aren’t winning more in the marketplace.
Agent, I hope the new rep’s first name is not Greg. With this rep, his approach has been “Don’t confuse me with the facts, if you don’t meet your monthly quota, you are done.”