Dual Agent Opening an Agency

celks72

Expert
20
I have did a lot of research but no real answers on this. I am a dual agent, currently licensed in life, health, 6, 63, studying for p&c in the state of ohio. I wanting to open a store front. But here is the real questions. What are the steps to do this? is there a fmo that allows you to own your policies( that makes your book of business sellable, or transferable. I also need a broker that will allow me to sell or transfer the book of business when im finally ready to retire. like a said the internet has no real answers , hopefully I can get some here.
 
how long have you been in business as l&h?

im not sure what dual agent means in this context, you mean agent for 1 carrier 2 IMO/FMO?

I think you are talking about opening a general agency.
 
I've been in the business 7 years, I'm also a financial advisor
I am wanting to open a general agency, but ice looked through this forum, and no one had really explained how to actaully own your own book of business.
The question is when I open a general agency how do I go through an fmo for p and c, life annuity, broker platform , and be sure if I retire or quit that book of business is owned by me and not the companies I sold through
 
The first thing you need to realize is that the P&C world is very different from life and health. You don't just get an IMO, you need to join a cluster or work under another agency. With life you can pretty much get a contract with anyone you ask, but with P&C it can be quite the process and it's difficult to qualify. The commissions also tend to be very low (relatively speaking) and as such you might be better off not even bothering and/or just partnering with a shop to send the business to.

I don't personally know any agents or agencies that excel at both P&C and life products. All of them really focus on one and occasionally do the other. Considering how new this is to you it may be in your interest to look into some clusters and such. There is a gentleman on here, Shawn Walker? He could definitely shed more light on this; you may want to reach out to him, specifically with respect to the P&C side of things.
 
Forget the "store front". Sounds like retail space to me. Too expensive and you will never get the walk-in business to make up the difference. Just get a small office, perhaps in an executive suite to start. As you build your book, you can get something bigger if it makes sense.

As already stated, the P&C biz is a different animal. You can certainly try to run a full-service general agency, but I would not go that angle. Having worked in a large multi-line agency before, I can tell you that it is hard to be all things to all people. When you lose the auto due to rates, billing, etc, you tend to lose the financial services (life, health) as well.

With that said, you typically "own" your book with most P&C clusters. That's not the issue. It comes down to the contract and how it's written... Non-compete agreements, buyout costs, etc... For example, if a cluster gets you direct appointments to a company, you may be prohibited from contracting with them after you leave that cluster for 1 or 2 years without paying to "get out". These contracts vary and some are good, some are very restrictive.

If you are going to do P&C as a "side" business, then I suppose you can take a more restrictive contract, as such contracts tend to have lower fees associated with them.

You are right - you will not find much info on the internet about these contracts because of the nature of confidentiality. In almost every case, you will have to sign a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) in order to see the contract, fees, commissions, etc... A very different animal than the Life Insurance world.
 
ok, I think I confused the forum. I am a financial advisor, with health, life and studying for p&c. I am wanting to open a store front. I want to be your one stop shop. My questions is how do you own your book of business when it comes to p&C. I understand your get licensed with carriers directly as independent. But has anyone ever used a FMO, for p&C, in such a way that an independent agent does for life sales. That will allow you to own the book of business and allow you to leave the fmo after your build the business and go direct. Im not worried about the commissions. I understand they are low. But I am not your average agent, selling is selling. I just want to make sure I don't build up a book of business for anyone else.
 
ok, I think I confused the forum. I am a financial advisor, with health, life and studying for p&c. I am wanting to open a store front. I want to be your one stop shop. My questions is how do you own your book of business when it comes to p&C. I understand your get licensed with carriers directly as independent. But has anyone ever used a FMO, for p&C, in such a way that an independent agent does for life sales. That will allow you to own the book of business and allow you to leave the fmo after your build the business and go direct. Im not worried about the commissions. I understand they are low. But I am not your average agent, selling is selling. I just want to make sure I don't build up a book of business for anyone else.

P&C is a different animal than L&H. P&C is a much more restrictive and detailed contract. If you want to sell your book, you will be subject to the buyout clause if it is sold outside the cluster. Usually that won't apply if the sale is made to someone that is inside the cluster.

As I said before, you will need to sign an NDA to read how the contract works. Every cluster and group has it's own benefits/drawbacks, etc...
 
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