Lower Limits On Auto

[JenkinsAgency]

^suggesting your Indy colleague writes anythjng with a pulse aka you're better as a captive? Sounds like we got a newbie captive clown (prob farmers or Allstate..) Blinded by the light & surely a douche..

What is it with all these Indy evangelists consistently being condescending asshats? Maybe just accept that there's more than one way to be successful?

Never said I'm better, but my clients are definitely better off with an advisor who educates them on the value of proper limits, instead of just taking the easy way out and writing state minimum.

 

[indienoise]

What is it with all these Indy evangelists consistently being condescending asshats? Maybe just accept that there's more than one way to be successful?

Never said I'm better, but my clients are definitely better off with an advisor who educates them on the value of proper limits, instead of just taking the easy way out and writing state minimum.

I wouldn't be too concerned about that guy. Doesn't play well with others.

 

[insurance1822]

What is it with all these Indy evangelists consistently being condescending asshats? Maybe just accept that there's more than one way to be successful?

Never said I'm better, but my clients are definitely better off with an advisor who educates them on the value of proper limits, instead of just taking the easy way out and writing state minimum.

Your clients would be best served if you represented a variety of companies & presented the most competitive carrier for them. All you push is 1 company's product. I guarantee you've issued policies that you know FULL WELL aren't priced great BUT the person just doesn't know of other companies or agencies...so you sell them your captive's rate. How does that feel to save somebody $300/year when you know full well if they shopped all the local competitive carriers that could be $1,000/year? That's sure good for the client eh? You gloated about "the indy down the street who will write anything w/ a pulse" and I take that as pretty condescending towards them. The fact of the matter is captive's are the ones writing anything w/ a pulse. If you TRULY TRULY cared about the CLIENT'S best interest...you CAN'T justify representing only 1 company. PERIOD.

And do you think your clients will give 2 $hits about your advice when your captive jacks their rates OR they get quoted from the Indy down the street who slaughters your price? NO...they won't. I came from the captive world & I'm living proof newbie Farmer's turd so trust me on this. Sure your personal touch loyalists will remain, but your hands are handcuffed my friend & by the time you realize it...you'll be too financially invested to get out.

Assuming you've been in business long enough...how many times has somebody asked about their rates that you know SUCK but you have no other options? So you pump them full of excuses why their rate went up & discuss their coverage's in order to redirect them off the bottom line price increase because YOU HAVE NO OTHER OPTIONS.

Then it's off the phones to hit your life & financial numbers to hopefully get your bonus. If you measure success by money, you can certainly make good money as a captive. Let's assume that number is $250,000. If that captive agency owner is able to make $250,000, he would be making way more if he ran an indy operation. FACT

It disgusts me how these captives bring in young talent & pump them full of this BS. I see it time & time again. How about when your captive rolls out ACV roof policies or 2% wind/hail deductibles? What will you say to the brand new homeowner's who just shelled out most of their savings on a down-payment & one large wind/hail loss will cripple them financially because they won't have the money? Will you stop writing homeowner's policies & tell them to pursue coverage elsewhere? NO. You'll continue to write your policies because you WON'T HAVE ANY OTHER CHOICE.

I see local captives selling ACV roof & large wind/hail deductibles all day because they have to. I SEE families who don't have the financial means to recover when these massive deductibles rock their world & it's because you scum bag captives are serving your captor instead of the client. Maybe your company doesn't have these coverage gaps yet...but you get my point here.

Don't even pretend for a second that you're doing what's in the clients best interest. The only way you could possibly serve a clients best interest is if your company just so happens to be priced the best for a person & that would be by accident because you wouldn't even know it anyway. I guarantee that 9 out of 10 times if you can save them money...an indy can save them more.

Go down another glass of koolaid

 

[JenkinsAgency]

Your clients would be best served if you represented a variety of companies & presented the most competitive carrier for them. All you push is 1 company's product. I guarantee you've issued policies that you know FULL WELL aren't priced great BUT the person just doesn't know of other companies or agencies...so you sell them your captive's rate. How does that feel to save somebody $300/year when you know full well if they shopped all the local competitive carriers that could be $1,000/year? That's sure good for the client eh? You gloated about "the indy down the street who will write anything w/ a pulse" and I take that as pretty condescending towards them. The fact of the matter is captive's are the ones writing anything w/ a pulse. If you TRULY TRULY cared about the CLIENT'S best interest...you CAN'T justify representing only 1 company. PERIOD. And do you think your clients will give 2 $hits about your advice when your captive jacks their rates OR they get quoted from the Indy down the street who slaughters your price? NO...they won't. I came from the captive world & I'm living proof newbie Farmer's turd so trust me on this. Sure your personal touch loyalists will remain, but your hands are handcuffed my friend & by the time you realize it...you'll be too financially invested to get out. Assuming you've been in business long enough...how many times has somebody asked about their rates that you know SUCK but you have no other options? So you pump them full of excuses why their rate went up & discuss their coverage's in order to redirect them off the bottom line price increase because YOU HAVE NO OTHER OPTIONS. Then it's off the phones to hit your life & financial numbers to hopefully get your bonus. If you measure success by money, you can certainly make good money as a captive. Let's assume that number is $250,000. If that captive agency owner is able to make $250,000, he would be making way more if he ran an indy operation. FACT It disgusts me how these captives bring in young talent & pump them full of this BS. I see it time & time again. How about when your captive rolls out ACV roof policies or 2% wind/hail deductibles? What will you say to the brand new homeowner's who just shelled out most of their savings on a down-payment & one large wind/hail loss will cripple them financially because they won't have the money? Will you stop writing homeowner's policies & tell them to pursue coverage elsewhere? NO. You'll continue to write your policies because you WON'T HAVE ANY OTHER CHOICE. I see local captives selling ACV roof & large wind/hail deductibles all day because they have to. I SEE families who don't have the financial means to recover when these massive deductibles rock their world & it's because you scum bag captives are serving your captor instead of the client. Maybe your company doesn't have these coverage gaps yet...but you get my point here. Don't even pretend for a second that you're doing what's in the clients best interest. The only way you could possibly serve a clients best interest is if your company just so happens to be priced the best for a person & that would be by accident because you wouldn't even know it anyway. I guarantee that 9 out of 10 times if you can save them money...an indy can save them more. Go down another glass of koolaid

Not sure where you live, but it doesn't work that way in Texas. Other than a mold scare about ten years ago, we don't have any real challenges in the fire market. And I'm absolutely doing what's in the clients best interest. That's why I picked Farmers instead of going independent at the beginning. Our home policy is RCV everything and I have tons of options on deductibles. I haven't written a single policy at higher than 1% roof deductible unless it was monoline. And I have no intention of playing the price game. I tell all of my clients explicitly that we're probably not the very least expensive option. However, you don't walk into a Mercedes dealership expecting to pay the price of a KIA. The service and claims side of things is all that really matters in insurance. There's absolutely no doubt that Farmers and other companies you love to hate do a much better job of servicing claims that the 4 or 5 companies most indies always write.

 

[BlockO]

There's absolutely no doubt that Farmers and other companies you love to hate do a much better job of servicing claims that the 4 or 5 companies most indies always write.

according to the JD power claims survey study, whether a company is captive or indy has little or nothing to do with how well they handle claims. looking at which carriers are above/below the industry average, you can't draw any conclusion regarding one being better than the other.

 

[indienoise]

according to the JD power claims survey study, whether a company is captive or indy has little or nothing to do with how well they handle claims. looking at which carriers are above/below the industry average, you can't draw any conclusion regarding one being better than the other.

AND this is completely anecdotal, I don't have hard data to back it up, but I spent several years in a personal injury law firm, and everyone I worked with agreed, we would rather deal with Travelers, Hartford, etc. than one of the big three. Not that any of them were necessarily BAD, but that was most definitely my experience. Farmers, I can't comment on as they don't really have a presence in SC. Don't know if they even do business here.

The regional nonstandard carriers here in the southeast do all SUCK for claims. That's to be expected, I guess. I still represent some of them, as you kind of have to if you're going to keep up with the competition, but I usually only write that business with a disclaimer to the client that they are totally getting what they pay for.

 

[BlockO]

The regional nonstandard carriers here in the southeast do all SUCK for claims.

I would agree with that. the smaller the companies, the more likely to have lousy claims service. the larger non-standard companies do quite a bit better. but still not as well as the preferred companies.

but my point was more directed towards captive vs. indy than it was standard vs. non-standard.

 

[Texasproducer]

Your clients would be best served if you represented a variety of companies & presented the most competitive carrier for them. All you push is 1 company's product. I guarantee you've issued policies that you know FULL WELL aren't priced great BUT the person just doesn't know of other companies or agencies...so you sell them your captive's rate. How does that feel to save somebody $300/year when you know full well if they shopped all the local competitive carriers that could be $1,000/year? That's sure good for the client eh? You gloated about "the indy down the street who will write anything w/ a pulse" and I take that as pretty condescending towards them. The fact of the matter is captive's are the ones writing anything w/ a pulse. If you TRULY TRULY cared about the CLIENT'S best interest...you CAN'T justify representing only 1 company. PERIOD.

And do you think your clients will give 2 about your advice when your captive jacks their rates OR they get quoted from the Indy down the street who slaughters your price? NO...they won't. I came from the captive world & I'm living proof newbie Farmer's turd so trust me on this. Sure your personal touch loyalists will remain, but your hands are handcuffed my friend & by the time you realize it...you'll be too financially invested to get out.

Assuming you've been in business long enough...how many times has somebody asked about their rates that you know SUCK but you have no other options? So you pump them full of excuses why their rate went up & discuss their coverage's in order to redirect them off the bottom line price increase because YOU HAVE NO OTHER OPTIONS.

Then it's off the phones to hit your life & financial numbers to hopefully get your bonus. If you measure success by money, you can certainly make good money as a captive. Let's assume that number is $250,000. If that captive agency owner is able to make $250,000, he would be making way more if he ran an indy operation. FACT

It disgusts me how these captives bring in young talent & pump them full of this BS. I see it time & time again. How about when your captive rolls out ACV roof policies or 2% wind/hail deductibles? What will you say to the brand new homeowner's who just shelled out most of their savings on a down-payment & one large wind/hail loss will cripple them financially because they won't have the money? Will you stop writing homeowner's policies & tell them to pursue coverage elsewhere? NO. You'll continue to write your policies because you WON'T HAVE ANY OTHER CHOICE.

I see local captives selling ACV roof & large wind/hail deductibles all day because they have to. I SEE families who don't have the financial means to recover when these massive deductibles rock their world & it's because you scum bag captives are serving your captor instead of the client. Maybe your company doesn't have these coverage gaps yet...but you get my point here.

Don't even pretend for a second that you're doing what's in the clients best interest. The only way you could possibly serve a clients best interest is if your company just so happens to be priced the best for a person & that would be by accident because you wouldn't even know it anyway. I guarantee that 9 out of 10 times if you can save them money...an indy can save them more.

Go down another glass of koolaid

LOVE THIS RESPONSE. Completely true!

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Not sure where you live, but it doesn't work that way in Texas. Other than a mold scare about ten years ago, we don't have any real challenges in the fire market. And I'm absolutely doing what's in the clients best interest. That's why I picked Farmers instead of going independent at the beginning. Our home policy is RCV everything and I have tons of options on deductibles. I haven't written a single policy at higher than 1% roof deductible unless it was monoline. And I have no intention of playing the price game. I tell all of my clients explicitly that we're probably not the very least expensive option. However, you don't walk into a Mercedes dealership expecting to pay the price of a KIA. The service and claims side of things is all that really matters in insurance. There's absolutely no doubt that Farmers and other companies you love to hate do a much better job of servicing claims that the 4 or 5 companies most indies always write.

You cannot be serious. I am independent agent here in Dallas, TX and there are constant major changes in the fire insurance market. Farmers requiring a minimum 1.5% wind/hail deductible for monoline business is a great example. Farmers not insuring high value homes to the correct replacement cost. I've had customer's have high value inspections through Chubb or Castle inspections and arrive at a true replacement cost over twice what Farmers refers to as "replacement cost." Allstate's new house & home policy offering depreciated cash value coverage for hail claims. Until a few years ago Farmers only offered a broad form HOA+ policy but would pretend it was every bit as good as the HO3 or HOB other carriers sold. The new Next Generation policy with Farmers is extremely good but that is relatively new.

 

[BigIVU]

Dan, I am increasingly suspect of many of the "expert" surveys and white papers that I read, having found them often to reach erroneous conclusions. That last JD Powers claims survey I saw listed a carrier in the Top 10 that I have pretty extensive personal knowledge of. How they could have been in even the Top 500 in claims handling is baffling.