Any Hispanic Independent Agency Owners? Looking for Advice

[CSanchez]

I'm looking to start my Independent Agency, I will accept all business but I will market towards Hispanics and I am planning a bulk of my business being Non-Standard clients with no DL's or Driving history.

I know it's been done before and I'm hoping someone on this forum has followed a similar business model and could offer advice.

 

[Tylerstc]

I'm looking to start my Independent Agency, I will accept all business but I will market towards Hispanics and I am planning a bulk of my business being Non-Standard clients with no DL's or Driving history.

I know it's been done before and I'm hoping someone on this forum has followed a similar business model and could offer advice.

I'm not Hispanic, but did work at a Captive Agency that had a large Hispanic book. Be ready for a lot of service work and high loss ratio. Since a lot of customers will be paying cash, or calling in their payments, that will take up a lot of your time with service work. That will impede on your time marketing and trying to get business, so you'll have to plan on bringing in a CSR sooner than most.


With that said, there are definitely benefits (which I'm sure you know). Assuming they want to keep insurance, retention should be high. There aren't too many Hispanic agencies, so you will build good relationships with them and get a lot of referrals. Also, their premium should be higher as well, which will help offset the limit of customers you can handle given the service work. I would always stress the benefits of auto pay.


I don't know of any carriers that will insure someone with no license? If it's suspended, international license, etc., then there are some that will.


To work on the loss ratio, you really need to keep an eye out for unlisted drivers. Stress to the customers, that all drivers in the household need to be listed, or excluded. If there is a guy that wants a policy as the only driver with 4 cars, chances are, there are a few other drivers in the household. Either turn them away, or tell them only he would be covered in the event of a claim.


Now that you are the agency owner, you are the person responsible for loss ratio and potential for an E&O claim, so these things are now very important to you. If something feels shady, but you want to be loyal because they are a friend of a relative/friend, don't do it, look out for your family and yourself first.


Of course my assumptions and generalizations apply only to some, but from my experience, these are some of things that apply to this niche market. There are now a lot of 2nd gen family members that are homeowners, which are great customers regardless of their race/culture. Good luck, sounds like you have a good opportunity if you do things the right way!

 

[CSanchez]

I'm not Hispanic, but did work at a Captive Agency that had a large Hispanic book. Be ready for a lot of service work and high loss ratio. Since a lot of customers will be paying cash, or calling in their payments, that will take up a lot of your time with service work. That will impede on your time marketing and trying to get business, so you'll have to plan on bringing in a CSR sooner than most.


With that said, there are definitely benefits (which I'm sure you know). Assuming they want to keep insurance, retention should be high. There aren't too many Hispanic agencies, so you will build good relationships with them and get a lot of referrals. Also, their premium should be higher as well, which will help offset the limit of customers you can handle given the service work. I would always stress the benefits of auto pay.


I don't know of any carriers that will insure someone with no license? If it's suspended, international license, etc., then there are some that will.


To work on the loss ratio, you really need to keep an eye out for unlisted drivers. Stress to the customers, that all drivers in the household need to be listed, or excluded. If there is a guy that wants a policy as the only driver with 4 cars, chances are, there are a few other drivers in the household. Either turn them away, or tell them only he would be covered in the event of a claim.


Now that you are the agency owner, you are the person responsible for loss ratio and potential for an E&O claim, so these things are now very important to you. If something feels shady, but you want to be loyal because they are a friend of a relative/friend, don't do it, look out for your family and yourself first.


Of course my assumptions and generalizations apply only to some, but from my experience, these are some of things that apply to this niche market. There are now a lot of 2nd gen family members that are homeowners, which are great customers regardless of their race/culture. Good luck, sounds like you have a good opportunity if you do things the right way!

Yes, the town I am from is growing about 100, 000 people or so and it's in dire need of a reliable hispanic agency. Also since it's not a big city, lots of illegal aliens are actually homeowners.