Captive Carriers first right of refusal

[norcalinsurance]

Years ago when my husband was a captive agent, his boss checked with the DOI and pulled up all of the companies he was appointed with. Here in Virginia at that time your state license number was the same as your social, which of course the captive agency had on file. I don't know how strict your company is, but this agency would not allow you to be appointed with any company that they did not have a contract with. My husband refused to cancel his other company appointments, quit and became independent and never looked back.

Farmer's is strict in a specific way. As as long as I ask Farmer's if they want the business first, and Farmer's denies the business, I can go to any carrier/broker/Chubb/wherever you can imagine/ and throw a bid into the hat.

But Farmer's writes quite a bit of stuff, and I think InsuranceRus may be treading on thin ice, because in this day and age, Farmer's can probably check on who their Agents are appointed with by using Filters and seeing hundreds if not thousands at a time, side by side with their respective company's their appointed with.

If you choose to write with another company, try and get something documented where Farmer's didn't want or didn't think they were competitive in the business, but I'm no lawyer, so I'm just babbling...but that's what I'd do.