Getting Out of my Farmers Contract??

[Warrior]

You notify them in writing that you are leaving...I assume the lease or sees to your office is in your name, not theirs, right? If so, they don't have claim to your physical location.

I would be extremely careful about this situation. Even if you don't solicit their business, you could find yourself in a legal dispute with farmers. You should consult an attorney.

Not in your name, meaning the agency is not registered as "John doe agency" like all the captives do, or do you mean your state DOI shows a different person as producer responsible for the agency. This could change the legality of your plight, even if the ethics don't change.

I have a different person who is an independent agent who is taking over my lease and opening up his office in mine. Could I tell my clients that and the clients go to this person on their own to get insurance? I'm not telling them to or soliciting them. ????

 

[todd02]

Check your contract. It's spelled out in it. You can't solicit Farmers customers for one year or even the newer contracts have a longer time frame. What gives with the negative Farmers tone? My Agency has grown 30-40% every year over the last 8 years I've had it. Best opportunity I could of gotten in my life. No matter what you are in you just have to market to the type of client your underwriting wants. So in my area in Texas Farmers wants new roofs and people with good credit. Also I know which zip codes I'm most competitive in so I target market the right people/areas. It's not rocket science just a lot of knowing what you're doing.

 

[insurance1822]

^Are we really going to pretend like Farmers doesn't entirely suck @$$? Just like any captive? Cmon bruh

If you're successful w/ Farmers, it's in spite of Farmers. Farmers sucks...you're g@y & you need to open an IA.

 

[todd02]

^Are we really going to pretend like Farmers doesn't entirely suck @$$? Just like any captive? Cmon bruh

If you're successful w/ Farmers, it's in spite of Farmers. Farmers sucks...you're g@y & you need to open an IA.

Cmon man. Mature up a little bit. Stop the childish name calling and trolling.

I've thought plenty of times about opening up and Indy. Reason I wouldn't open an Indy is name recognition. There is power behind the billions Farmers spends in branding and technology. As well as indys in my area have the same competitive rate issues I have. For instance I don't target the same customers an Indy would. Their home policies through ASI run around $600 a year for a basic fire policy. I run from those customers. I instead target State Farm or Liberty Mutual and steal their $2,000 HOW policies. I make 2x-3x more. Yes I have to produce higher volume but I also get after hours phone support, direct access to claims and Underwritting and the brand name.

 

[indienoise]

I decided to delete all my insults and the logic that backs them all up. Simply suffice it to say you've got the blinders on, dude.

I will say you're using the same tactics you accuse of him. Keep lying to yourself that it's Indy agents writing bare bones policies to maintain competitive pricing, and not captives who do so because they have no choice if they want a paycheck. :/

Besides, isn't Farmers the carrier trying to pass off a somewhat modified ho2 as a comprehensive homeowners policy?

 

[todd02]

I decided to delete all my insults and the logic that backs them all up. Simply suffice it to say you've got the blinders on, dude.

I will say you're using the same tactics you accuse of him. Keep lying to yourself that it's Indy agents writing bare bones policies to maintain competitive pricing, and not captives who do so because they have no choice if they want a paycheck. :/

Besides, isn't Farmers the carrier trying to pass off a somewhat modified ho2 as a comprehensive homeowners policy?

You missed the entire point.... each have their own good/bad. I've never heard of an HO-2. Farmers has a Smart Plan home owners contract that's fully customizable and yes their are a ton of agents that write bare bones policies and focus on price. Not my Agency. And my paycheck is increasing 30-40% a year.

 

[insurance1822]

I don't know many IA's who write ASI. Progressive commissions are junk & their profit sharing is non-existent.

Very rarely do I get push-back on brand recognition & when I do...I nip it in the butt quickly. When you operate purely on a referral model, there's immediate trust. I'm sure if I was hitting leads & working that bulk prospect market then yes, it would be more of an issue.

I just don't understand how it's so difficult here. Your business is 100% at the soul direction of Farmers. Ask Allstate agents what happened in the states who made insurance scoring prohibited ...or in the states that Allstate just chose to pull from. They lost EVERYTHING, overnight.

I highly doubt there's a measurable # of people calling you just because they want Farmers. I also get calls because people are looking for Travelers, Progressive, Encompass Safeco etc.

Starting in this business? Well yes, it starts w/ being a captive. But why you continue to invest time & money into growing w/ a captive carrier baffles me. You would literally have (at least) 2x the clients based off rates alone. If you really cared about offering people awesome products (which I admittedly don't) you'd be amazed at the Encompass Elite Policy. Almost every single person you spoke to...you'd be competitive with.

Again, I'm not one to preach the moral high ground because all I care about is making money. But when I was a captive (and only selling 1 product..) I was cognisant of the fact my product was 100% inferior & people could absolutely getting better pricing & coverage elsewhere.

You're literally doing a jester dance hoping people don't shop you. If you have a friend or family member who's hurting for money...would you give them your quote? Or would you tell them shop you vs an IA & let the best coverage/price win?

 

[todd02]

Yup some really great points that make being a captive nerve racking. They could jump ship and pull out. But so could every other carrier in an Indy. If they did I would be released of my Captive and go Indy.

Yes I've told family and friends to shop me and leave for 6 months then requote them to get the new customer rates. Rates are cyclical and sometimes it's better if they leave for 6-12 months and come back.

So I'm not arguing Captive is better. I'm saying you can be successful in either capacity. You just have to know exactly how to run your business for your underwriters. Works same both ways. I would concede that Indy is actually a "safer" but more overhead method.

 

[indienoise]

You're right that there are agents like that in both exclusive and IA models. There are a few hard, fast rules I have in doing business. I don't pretend I don't know there are kids or other drivers in a household. I won't intentionally misclassify class codes and I won't write a ghost policy. There are agents that will, and they have to live with the results when something goes wrong. Not me.
I don't know that I would say IA is more capital intensive. Yes, the carrier subsidizes you somewhat. But they are also expecting you to throw money at advertising, mailers, etc (and yes I know they co-op) but IA's aren't doing that because those methods aren't relevant today. Its wasted money, and captives are typically paying for those subsidies with lower commissions and a business they don't fully own, and a lower close ratio.
Yes there are trade offs. EXACTLY two years ago to the day, I was making the same arguments as you are todd, trying to convince myself to stay with Nationwide. March 23 2015 I gave notice and started my IA.

 

[todd02]

Well congrats on going Indy. Another point for those already Captive like myself. Why would I sell a 5 million dollar book at 1.5X to go start over again when I'm still growing 30+%? I guess that's where my disconnect is. Better to start scratch as an Indy I would say. Then to start over.