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Terrific article from the Insurance Journal: Youg Agent Optimism Wanes...
By Andrea Wells | April 17, 2023
Its a great read if interested, but I won't bore you with the whole thing - just a few of the interesting/comic highlights. You can imagine where this is going, New Agents - during a historic hard market amongst industry changes.
Here is the backdrop of the artilce:
"Optimism among young agents took a hit, falling from 2022 to 2023, according to Insurance Journal’s annual Young Agents Survey....
Young agents felt less positive about the future of the agency system, as well, this year. According to the survey, only 38.7% of young agents felt “very optimistic” about the future of the agency system, compared to 47.2% in the 2022 survey.....
Only 4.1% of young agents responding to this year’s survey felt “very optimistic” about the outlook of the U.S. economy in 2023..."
And some [not all] of the Agent Comments:
"Another young agent said: “I’m concerned about my clients, and how they will be able to afford these never-ending premium increases,”....
“There is a ton of room for improvement on the independent side for both PL and CL as it pertains to technology and efficiencies. We’re lightyears behind other industries,” that young agent wrote.....
“This is the worst white-collar job there is,” one respondent said.....
“I would like to see rates be somewhat consistent verses being a roller coaster like some carriers are doing today. This makes doing renewal business hard especially when you want customers staying with that carrier you originally put them with unless violations or accidents happen which force them to move elsewhere.”....
“I would like carriers not to be able to ‘double dip’ in the markets, for example, changing their replacement cost calculators due to inflation and doing a rate increase on the policies at the same time. To me that is taking from the same insured twice.”....
“I believe it should be harder to achieve your insurance license,” one young agent said. “There are a lot of bad apples … being unethical gives the whole industry a bad rep.”....
the industry is “several decades behind in its use of technology,” adding that “the lack of technology available to the end consumer is disappointing.”.....
One young agent said they hope for carriers to support independent agents more. “Although they say they do, they will go and make deals with independent agents’ competitors to support their own causes.”....
Another added: “I would like to see carrier employees take more time to try to understand an agent’s day-to-day tasks and help alleviate some of the pressure from carriers by understanding positions and trusting their agents more.”
By Andrea Wells | April 17, 2023
Its a great read if interested, but I won't bore you with the whole thing - just a few of the interesting/comic highlights. You can imagine where this is going, New Agents - during a historic hard market amongst industry changes.
Here is the backdrop of the artilce:
"Optimism among young agents took a hit, falling from 2022 to 2023, according to Insurance Journal’s annual Young Agents Survey....
Young agents felt less positive about the future of the agency system, as well, this year. According to the survey, only 38.7% of young agents felt “very optimistic” about the future of the agency system, compared to 47.2% in the 2022 survey.....
Only 4.1% of young agents responding to this year’s survey felt “very optimistic” about the outlook of the U.S. economy in 2023..."
And some [not all] of the Agent Comments:
"Another young agent said: “I’m concerned about my clients, and how they will be able to afford these never-ending premium increases,”....
“There is a ton of room for improvement on the independent side for both PL and CL as it pertains to technology and efficiencies. We’re lightyears behind other industries,” that young agent wrote.....
“This is the worst white-collar job there is,” one respondent said.....
“I would like to see rates be somewhat consistent verses being a roller coaster like some carriers are doing today. This makes doing renewal business hard especially when you want customers staying with that carrier you originally put them with unless violations or accidents happen which force them to move elsewhere.”....
“I would like carriers not to be able to ‘double dip’ in the markets, for example, changing their replacement cost calculators due to inflation and doing a rate increase on the policies at the same time. To me that is taking from the same insured twice.”....
“I believe it should be harder to achieve your insurance license,” one young agent said. “There are a lot of bad apples … being unethical gives the whole industry a bad rep.”....
the industry is “several decades behind in its use of technology,” adding that “the lack of technology available to the end consumer is disappointing.”.....
One young agent said they hope for carriers to support independent agents more. “Although they say they do, they will go and make deals with independent agents’ competitors to support their own causes.”....
Another added: “I would like to see carrier employees take more time to try to understand an agent’s day-to-day tasks and help alleviate some of the pressure from carriers by understanding positions and trusting their agents more.”
. My brother, who is also an agent, and I have joked that it should require a CIC or other designation to sell commercial lines... it's amazing some of the stuff you see out there
