need advice on opening a insurance agency

[Kingpin]

Hi, I'm from California and I've been selling Truck insurance as part-time for the past 2 years. Now, I'm thinking about opening up my own agency. I've been around Trucking Transportation since my childhood, and for the past two years i've been writing truck insurance policies. I was wondering if someone could advice/guide me in the right direction. Any advice would be helpful. How hard is it to get appointed with brokers/companies?
Thanks for your help!!

-Sat

 

[STIBROKER]

I was wondering if someone could advice/guide me in the right direction. Any advice would be helpful.

first print up a bunch of tri fold brochures and buy a ton of cardboard fold out pamphlet holders and hit every truck stop you can find....give the cashier a 5 spot for not chunking them after you leave.....then here comes the best part....you sit down and have a chicken fried steak /w cream gravy mashed taders lunch with a big glass of tea....because really...thats the best place to find dahammm good CFS......you might gain some weight though.....your call

 

[djs]

For commercial, it's pretty tough to get direct appointments with companies. You won't write enough business to warrant the time they would spend (unless you are going to hire 50+ people).

You'll have to find someone to work through, an MGA of sorts, though I'm not sure what the correct TLA (three letter acronym) is for commercial brokers that allow you to write the business. These are pretty common, you just have to find a company who you want to write with, then find who you can write through. Most carriers will point you to someone.

You'll need some pretty serious E&O coverage, and always be ready to do a certificate for whatever. Commercial E&O coverage, and the time commitment required to support the policies, mean this is not a part time adventure. I know you didn't say you were thinking about part time, but somehow I read that into your post initially, and just figured I'd warn you, the overhead for commercial is pretty steep. You may know this already.

I agree with Sti about the food, but I disagree about the brochures at truck stops. If they are at a truck stop, they have a load, which means they have insurance. Unless they just lost a load because they couldn't get a cert on time, or just got a big rate hike, it's hard to convince them at that point to call you about insurance. That said, I don't have much of an idea on where to go, but I figure you have this part already, based on your experience.

Dan

 

[Kingpin]

First of Thank you Dan and STI for your inputs, your help is highly appreciated. For my state business license i need to be appointed by at least one company. How do I go about doing that? Far as E&O insurance, how hard is to get coverage for new business? do you recommend going through any agent associations for E&O coverage. how difficult is it to get appointed with MGA's by a new business? Once again Dan and Sti thanks for your inputs...have a good day!!

 

[djs]

The only place I know you can get coverage is Brown & Brown of CA, Inc, DBA Calsurance. They won't write you direct though, you'll have to find a broker to place it for you. I'm not sure if they will write new agents though. Also, plan on $4K/year or better, especially if you are doing commercial.

Getting an appointment is a days work, once you have your insurance license and your E&O insurance. It's only a days work because you have to figure out who you want to be appointed with. If you have your life/health license, you can get appointed with a health carrier in about 10 minutes, so you can get your business license, so you can use your business name to get appointments with carriers that you really want to work with.

I'm not sure why you need a carrier appointment for your business license, but I'll take your word for it. If you think you need it for your insurance license, this is no longer true, unless, with the license changes they did this year, they brought it back (it was an old rule).

Dan

 

[ims01]

If you have any Worker's Comp to write, I found if you use a P.E.O. you can save your clients a lot.

 

[Slow Eddie]

I'm late to the party but.... You don't need a carrier appointment to hold a California PC license. In lieu of appointments you need a $10k Insurance Broker Bond. No big deal, costs about $40-$70 per year.

Eddie

 

[JRoot]

If you have any Worker's Comp to write, I found if you use a P.E.O. you can save your clients a lot.

I disagree. PEO's are ok for certain situations, most times you're overpaying. Especially for workers comp. They don't base rates off any credible data.