Unusual merger here. You have a direct writer of personal lines acquiring an online platform for commercial independent agents. There is really no synergies here whatsoever, it’s not a carrier to carrier merger, also it’s not a personal lines carrier to a personal lines tech either. It’s a different animal they they ever touched.
Might want to research AmFam some more. AmFam is a provider of Commercial Lines as well as Personal Lines. This merger makes complete sense. They are trying to grow more in the CL space and have their hands in all kinds of things these days with their venture capital unit. They acquired Main Street America in 2018, take a look at their business mix too. Their captive agent driven PL business which has sustained them is a significant risk to their resiliency thus the moves they are making.
The problem with Main street is they are antiquated. Most of their business is small contractors. When you write small BOP risks, you make small commissions unless you put thousands of those type of risks on the books. Main street is very difficult to work with.
All the carriers want that boring , small premium business and their appetites are the same as well. They’ll fight other carriers for a minimum $600.00 premium. Agents better start writing a more sophisticated risk to ward off those small online policies and to keep ahead of the competition that rarely gets rich doing this.
Agree with your comments and not sure why an independent agency would continue to support the Bold Penguin platform now that they are owned by Am Fam and the direct writer competition. Am Fam clearly supports multi channel distribution and not exclusively the independent agency system.
I disagree. This feels prophetic. AmFam has a solid regional commercial offering and is betting big on digital. This acquisition is consistent with other investments AmFam is making in commercial and I would expect that this will improve their agents’ experience while opening up opportunities down the road to go direct or open up a broader IA channel.
Unusual merger here. You have a direct writer of personal lines acquiring an online platform for commercial independent agents. There is really no synergies here whatsoever, it’s not a carrier to carrier merger, also it’s not a personal lines carrier to a personal lines tech either. It’s a different animal they they ever touched.
Might want to research AmFam some more. AmFam is a provider of Commercial Lines as well as Personal Lines. This merger makes complete sense. They are trying to grow more in the CL space and have their hands in all kinds of things these days with their venture capital unit. They acquired Main Street America in 2018, take a look at their business mix too. Their captive agent driven PL business which has sustained them is a significant risk to their resiliency thus the moves they are making.
I have a good word on their captive agents, they are not the commercial type. Yes they can expand to the IA, but I am not sure this will help them.
The problem with Main street is they are antiquated. Most of their business is small contractors. When you write small BOP risks, you make small commissions unless you put thousands of those type of risks on the books. Main street is very difficult to work with.
All the carriers want that boring , small premium business and their appetites are the same as well. They’ll fight other carriers for a minimum $600.00 premium. Agents better start writing a more sophisticated risk to ward off those small online policies and to keep ahead of the competition that rarely gets rich doing this.
Agree with your comments and not sure why an independent agency would continue to support the Bold Penguin platform now that they are owned by Am Fam and the direct writer competition. Am Fam clearly supports multi channel distribution and not exclusively the independent agency system.
I disagree. This feels prophetic. AmFam has a solid regional commercial offering and is betting big on digital. This acquisition is consistent with other investments AmFam is making in commercial and I would expect that this will improve their agents’ experience while opening up opportunities down the road to go direct or open up a broader IA channel.
Any idea what was the valuation of this deal?