Farmers Insurance to Cut Commissions and Increase Bonus.

[todd02]

Just learned Home Renewals are now getting cutt from 14 to 10% and quarterly revenue bonus is increasing from 7 to 40!

Based on cross selling lines of business to get production bonus.

Looks like Farmers Agents better hire specialists in different lines of business or else go out of business.

 

[AZDave]

Re: Farmers Insurance to Cutt Commissions and Increase Bonus.

Yikes, that is quite a reduction.

You mean, Farmers Agents better sell a lot of life insurance, or they will be out of business. ?

 

[todd02]

Re: Farmers Insurance to Cutt Commissions and Increase Bonus.

Yikes, that is quite a reduction.

You mean, Farmers Agents better sell a lot of life insurance, or they will be out of business. ?

No the new bonus structure is an agent must sell ALL lines of business to qualify for the major quarterly bonuses.

 

[insurance1822]

Re: Farmers Insurance to Cutt Commissions and Increase Bonus.

No the new bonus structure is an agent must sell ALL lines of business to qualify for the major quarterly bonuses. They are basically robbing smaller agents to help pay and grow producing Agents. Clearing out the older, sit on their book and don't produce Agents. Makes sense in a way if I'm corporate. BUT we are already growing big time so I wonder why they want to grow faster if our combine Ratios are terrible with auto.

You're building a house of cards & the wind will eventually come. If you're agency is as successful as you suggest, then that's even more reason to start diversifying (aka you should be able to afford it.) If you're snake oil software takes off? Well I guess screw it all. If not, Farmers will eventually ruin you.

Management will change, agendas will shift, comp structure will continue to deteriorate. Until I got higher up w/ multiple IA carriers & have sat w/ leaders of our group's 150MM book... I never understood how much I myself (an IA..) is subject to being shaken.

Reinsurance steers the ships. They aren't growing in your market w/ terrible auto combined ratios for no reason. You know what comes next. They have locked in rates for a period of time on their REins & then it's game over.

The relationship between product guys, in house actuaries & reinsurers is like the old school "whack em" arcade game. The national carriers are chasing profitability w/ an incredibly short term view b/c they're accountable to investors who take knee jerk reactions to our industry. You have no idea how quickly it can all go away.

Fortunately, I'm in a relatively stable state that's (historically) been immune to CAT losses & is consistently profitable. I see agents across the country who run fantastically successful IA's have to roll big books simply as being unlucky cogs in the machine.

You get paid to distribute (mostly) personal lines P&C. The most profitable, adaptable & controllable position to maximize your distribution and conduct damage control against the powers that be are BEING AN IA.

 

[todd02]

Re: Farmers Insurance to Cutt Commissions and Increase Bonus.

You're building a house of cards & the wind will eventually come. If you're agency is as successful as you suggest, then that's even more reason to start diversifying (aka you should be able to afford it.) If you're snake oil software takes off? Well I guess screw it all. If not, Farmers will eventually ruin you.

Management will change, agendas will shift, comp structure will continue to deteriorate. Until I got higher up w/ multiple IA carriers & have sat w/ leaders of our group's 150MM book... I never understood how much I myself (an IA..) is subject to being shaken.

Reinsurance steers the ships. They aren't growing in your market w/ terrible auto combined ratios for no reason. You know what comes next. They have locked in rates for a period of time on their REins & then it's game over.

The relationship between product guys, in house actuaries & reinsurers is like the old school "whack em" arcade game. The national carriers are chasing profitability w/ an incredibly short term view b/c they're accountable to investors who take knee jerk reactions to our industry. You have no idea how quickly it can all go away.

Fortunately, I'm in a relatively stable state that's (historically) been immune to CAT losses & is consistently profitable. I see agents across the country who run fantastically successful IA's have to roll big books simply as being unlucky cogs in the machine.

You get paid to distribute (mostly) personal lines P&C. The most profitable, adaptable & controllable position to maximize your distribution and conduct damage control against the powers that be are BEING AN IA.

indys are going to get flushed out. Tech is going to automate everything. Same thing happened to the banking industry. Tons of small banks went out of business or bought. They have automated tellers now. All carriers are going to fire their middle management like district managers, increases bonuses for good producing and high customer service scoring Agents.

Then tech is also going to force carriers to merge until the Govt stops it. This is where Indys get flushed out. One small part of my tech for instance is tracking rates for every zip code in the US. If a carrier takes a big increase every other carrier using my tech can sick their entire agency force in the area against that carrier. This will also change the way insurance companies rate people and not so heavily focused on credit scores which is nuts. So much you don't know. I'd get off the Indy train while you can.

 

[insurance1822]

Re: Farmers Insurance to Cutt Commissions and Increase Bonus.



oh boy....what should I do? Should I sell now? If I buy agencyMVP will I survive?

 

[todd02]

Re: Farmers Insurance to Cutt Commissions and Increase Bonus.

oh boy....what should I do? Should I sell now? If I buy agencyMVP will I survive?

Na I've banned you from purchasing. Mercia!

 

[insurance1822]

Re: Farmers Insurance to Cutt Commissions and Increase Bonus.

Na I've banned you from purchasing. Mercia!

Ok so if I can't buy AgencyMVP...then what will happen to me? Do you seriously think I should sell now? How long until the machines take over?

 

[todd02]

Re: Farmers Insurance to Cutt Commissions and Increase Bonus.

Ok so if I can't buy AgencyMVP...then what will happen to me? Do you seriously think I should sell now? How long until the machines take over?

No.... long drawn out and slow bankruptcy is only befitting of the biggest troll to ever post on insurance forums. I think everyone might agree.

 

[insurance1822]

Re: Farmers Insurance to Cutt Commissions and Increase Bonus.

No.... long drawn out and slow bankruptcy is only befitting of the biggest troll to ever post on insurance forums. I think everyone might agree.

OK but seriously, it's clear you took the red pill from Morpheus & you know the real world of insurance tech. SERIOUSLY, what should us IA's do?

Should we sell our books & start an agency w/ Farmers?