I was hoping to gain some opinions on the idea of purchasing an Allstate book. I have been in financial services for 7 years and was thinking about broadening my scope of services to include P&C. I also like the idea of buying into a book of re occuring revenue. Has anyone gone through this with Allstate? Are there advantages to looking at independent books of business?
Buying an Allstate Agency
- Thread starter SM3434
- Start date
I highly recommend that you contact the [email protected] and subscribe to their newsletter. It will give you a lot of insight into Allstate. Plus here are three threads worth reading.
Why Are There So Many Allstate Agencies for Sale Now? - Page 2
?? Allstate agency opportunity
Allstate Agency
Why Are There So Many Allstate Agencies for Sale Now? - Page 2
?? Allstate agency opportunity
Allstate Agency
- 11,995
It's not a bad gig, but know what problems you'll have going into it and that'll make it much easier. You'll want to have your wife or a family member have their license to farm off the business you can't write and still be able to make some money off of it and hopefully bring it to Allstate once the risk cleans up. There are plenty of folks that make good money at it and Allstate does offer support you won't usually get as an indy, but I'd talk to a few indy agents beforehand as well.
Personally I think Allstate, like everything else, is a good gig for the right person. They will be micro-managing you to some degree and they can get very grumpy about having things done a certain way, but they are very organized and can offer a great deal of back office support. If I were to go into the p&c business again I'd either look at buying an independent agency or taking that money and using it to grow a book of business. I think the real value in the Allstate program is doing a scratch agency, the commission structure on that type of a situation is MUCH more advantageous. If you buy a small enough book of business (and I wouldn't pay much for it) then you can still qualify for the scratch agent incentives and even if you only do that for a few years and either cash out or start over again that's a great deal. There is also nothing to say you can't start a scratch agency with Allstate and then after a few years sell it and go indy.
Personally I think Allstate, like everything else, is a good gig for the right person. They will be micro-managing you to some degree and they can get very grumpy about having things done a certain way, but they are very organized and can offer a great deal of back office support. If I were to go into the p&c business again I'd either look at buying an independent agency or taking that money and using it to grow a book of business. I think the real value in the Allstate program is doing a scratch agency, the commission structure on that type of a situation is MUCH more advantageous. If you buy a small enough book of business (and I wouldn't pay much for it) then you can still qualify for the scratch agent incentives and even if you only do that for a few years and either cash out or start over again that's a great deal. There is also nothing to say you can't start a scratch agency with Allstate and then after a few years sell it and go indy.
avaloninsurance
Expert
- 64
I have had about 4 years of experience with Allstate as a customer service representative for an agent. I also have had experience on the independent side. There are pros and cons to each, however I find that the independent side is better for the fact that whatever you write is all good. With Allstate there is a substantial amount of pressure to meet the numbers that they want for each product. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, because it makes you work harder to get your numbers, however I prefer to work smarter not harder!! I found it to be counter productive and a waste of time to be chasing down and pressuring clients to buy auto (to meet the company quota) when what they were wanting at that time was home insurance. If you want a corporate environment with lots of training, progress monitoring, and encouragement to meet your goals Allstate might be a good fit for you. I agree with a few of the posts listed above that it is a good fit for some people and not for others. I personally like freedom to write whatever my client chooses to and not feel the pressure to write a certain product to meet my quota.
- 171
Become an IIA, much better. The books become worth more money too...
Similar threads
