A Guide to P&C for New Agents and New Agencies

[NCAgent]

Great info. I'm a new independent in Charlotte, desperately needing your help. Please send me your contact info!

I'll send you my cell phone and we can talk. I'm always glad to give more assistance to NC agents!

QC as in queen city I take it?

 

[QCAgent]

Queen City, exactly. I read your posts and we actually have a similar story having worked at the Allstate call center. I took a different route after 2 yrs and decided to add securities (Series 6/63) to my arsenal. After Allstate, been in Financial Services for the past 8yrs. Last 3 as a financial advisor.

 

[DJAJ]

This thread is great, thank you for the info! I have a meeting set up with an agent who is selling their P&C Independent business. This is my first time looking into buying a business. What quesitons shoulld I be asking during this intial meeting? I very excited for this opportuinty but I dont want to make a mistake. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[b61mack]

Research, how much business is staying, yearly. Why is he selling. If he is retiring, that is good. But if he not at retirement age, beware. Is he a captive agency, beware again. Lots of agency, sell their book, only to go after the book after the sale. Have him hold some paper, so you have a way to penalize, and recoup, if things go bad. The biggest question is how competive are the rates.

 

[TrustCorp.]

I am about to go out on my on and open an office. I wanted to know how your are doing? What are the companies you work with and how did you get them? Any advice on anything else is cool too!

Keep it up... Love it! Very helpful for me since I am a start up agency.

 

[TonyTX12]

Im planning on opening a agency in Houston next year and would appreciate some advise. From what I've gathered up to this point it looks likes its going to be a challenge to get appointments with any carriers because companies are starting to pull away from Houston. I've been in touch with some clusters and I'm sure I can get an appointment but my concern is that I won't be competitive. Can any suggest the most competitive carriers in Texas or more specifically Houston?

 

[Guest]

Are there any other questions that people would like to see either as new agents, new business owners, or others for P&C?
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Space reserved for next post, don't want things going into page 3 for information.

NCAgent, this is been the most helpful thing I've taken from this website in my 3 years of membership, and I've taken a lot. Thanks for the time and effort you put into this thread.

I posted this a bit ago in its own thread, but figured that it might be more fitting here. My question is about telemarketing. What do you find to be the most effective way to use your telemarketers? Do you have them try to set appointments for people to come to your office, do quotes over phone, make appointments for you to go to client? My agency is at the point that I need some help and can't do it on my own anymore, too much service work. I've got a secretary now and would like to start using her as a telemarketer when she isn't servicing.

Many thanks for your input!

 

[wajiha]

My 2 biggest challenges where these:
1) Being on my own so no mentor to look after me. It's hard taking responsibility and realizing everything falls on you. If there is a mistake, no one takes the heat but me and the E&O (luckily that hasn't happened.) If there is a question I can't answer, I have to go find it myself, I don't have a mentor to verify with (thank god for underwriters!)

2) Getting carriers. That is why I'm spending time on the "getting carriers" section.

I picked Iroquois because they have an escape clause after a certain amount of production and I liked the rep. My agency is uniquely built where we had major carriers already but we operated in multiple states. Because of operating in multiple states we needed some state-specific carriers pretty sorely but not enough yet to justify a direct appointment. That is where Iroquois helped us excel the most. Eventually I'll roll everything to them for profit sharing and then to escape if necessary, though I don't think I'm leaving them anytime soon.

Hi!

I have just left Allstate and now i am starting my independent agency. I just cannot figure out which group to join in Maryland. I personally liked Iroguois group but the rep has told me that it is very difficult to position a start up agency to the carriers. I dont understand this cuz i do have a 3 years of exp and have some written business to take with me around $80k. I intend to write more in commercial. I need some guidance here.

 

[DJAJ]

Hi!

I have just left Allstate and now i am starting my independent agency. I just cannot figure out which group to join in Maryland. I personally liked Iroguois group but the rep has told me that it is very difficult to position a start up agency to the carriers. I dont understand this cuz i do have a 3 years of exp and have some written business to take with me around $80k. I intend to write more in commercial. I need some guidance here.

Just out of curiosity what part of Maryland are you in? Im in the same boat, in rockville and leaving Allstate etc..

 

[anepcar]

I had a question dealing with Iroquois, it is stated that it has an escape clause in the contract. Where in their contract does it state that if you sell X amount you can get out of your contract. According to their contract if you sign up with them you can not do business with any of their carriers for two years. I like everything else about the company except that, they have good carriers for part of country. Any advise would be appreciated.