P&C FMO's or IMO's

[aurelio2017]

Can someone tell me who would be the best FMO or IMO for P&C insurance?

Thanks

 

[marindependent]

You would have to be a lot more specific.

• What State?
• What Lines of Insurance?
• Personal Commercial?
• Admitted or Nonadmitted?
• For Commercial Wat types of Business and What Avg Premium Size?
• Instant Bind, Market Access, Exactly what you are looking for here?
• At least two paragraphs of what you are attempting to accomplish here also might really help you out.

 

[aurelio2017]

Hi I just got my license and I am looking for an IMO or FMO that will contract new broker's on P&C side of business in Florida.

 

[scagnt83]

Hi I just got my license and I am looking for an IMO or FMO that will contract new broker's on P&C side of business in Florida.

So what you are saying is you dont know any of the questions above.

Which is ok. You are new.

My advice is to find a local independent agency and work under them to learn the business.

Very few in the P&C field are a jack of all trades. Most learn a niche and stick with it. Find what you enjoy and are good at... go do it.

Eventually you will have the money and leverage to start your own agency.

While nothing is "impossible"; starting your own P&C agency from scratch... as a newly licensed agent... is not a road you want to go down.

JMHO as a life/annuity agent who has been in the industry for almost 20 years. P&C is a completely different animal than L&H. Your plan would be completely reasonable as a L&H agent.

 

[aurelio2017]

Thanks for your response

 

[marindependent]

@scagnt83 has one of the best posts I have seen on this forum in recent weeks.

Your plan would be completely reasonable as a L&H agent.

I believe that this is totally correct.

While nothing is "impossible"; starting your own P&C agency from scratch... as a newly licensed agent... is not a road you want to go down.

Totally Agree....and you are in Florida. Florida and California and perhaps New York are in an all out mess right now. Research your state and read the horror stories.

My advice is to find a local independent agency and work under them to learn the business.

Completely agree. Agree, Agree. Learn on someone else's dime. Watch and take notes. Learn from their mistakes and successes. It will save you years of your life.

Also - what has gone unmentioned is that "Market Access" is what it is all about in PC - and if you do not have market access - you dont have much. I am not a FL guy - but my guess is that as a new insurance individual you wont have much luck here at least in the begining.

There is a common misconception out there that home insurance or business insurance is not complicated.

 

[Shyla Christensen]

First, beware.

Integrity Marketing Group (based out of TX) has been on an FMO buying spree, trying to gobble up as many FMO's across the country as they can, simply in order to reduce market competition.

FMO's, such as Agent Pipeline, Holland, NAA (Superior Performers), AGA, Premier Marketing, Western Marketing, and many others are included in their portfolio (this list can be verified/expanded via the Integrity website).

Integrity hasn't been able to grow organically, and so have had to take the FMO merger route.

Integrity hasn't been able to grow organically (i.e. gaining more Agents via better support), and so acquisitions have been their key to growth.

As per another post elsewhere:

"Welcome to the world of insurance full of empty promises and recruit anybody with a pulse."

And Integrity owned FMO's are no different, even perhaps amongst the worst offenders.

Burn & churn is the Integrity way.

Integrity has adopted a quantity over quality approach in regards to Agents.

They would rather have 100 low-producing Agents (often via lack of support) that each write only 1 app than 10 better-producing Agents that each write 10 apps.

The net dollar gain is the same for them (100 apps written is 100 apps - regardless of the sources).

Integrity only cares about Integrity.

Again, burn & churn is the m.o. for Integrity (in regards to both Agents & employees).

Perhaps worse, many Medicare carriers could care less about Integrity, and so offer little-to-no dedicated support and/or training, meaning Agents are often left completely in the dark.

Most Integrity employees themselves don't even know the process for onboarding new Agents, and so cannot offer any real help.

Even worse, Integrity has in-house CRM's & databases that are outdated by some 30+ years, but continue to pump out propaganda claiming they are "leaders" in "AI" (ha!).

Let's not ignore the massive data breach that recently occurred at some Integrity companies (a class action suit is pending).

Plus, many of those Integrity owned FMO's all operate on different systems than each other, so any one of their FMO's is largely unaware of what the other(s) are doing, and there is virtually no cohesion amongst those similarly owned FMO's (imagine the nightmare caused when several subsidiaries of the same parent company each have different policies, procedures, processes, computer systems, forms, etc.).

Worse still, many of those Integrity similarly owned FMO's simply don't get along with each other (given the lack of cohesion/cooperation between each other), and so don't even offer support for each other.
I have frequently seen employees from one Integrity owned FMO simply refuse to return calls/emails from employees of another Integrity owned FMO.

And I have never seen as many data processing errors as I have w/Integrity owned FMO's (Integrity hasn't even initiated training programs for their employees, thus many don't even know how to properly submit Agent info to conform with NIPR/licensing info, creating unnecessary delays and/or rejection when trying to onboard.

Integrity has completely ignored sustainable operations and infrastructure, meaning lack of knowledge, low efficiency, low productivity, and low effectiveness.

One of the main reasons why their Agent support is so bad.
And many Integrity Managers are amongst the least knowledgeable of products, carrier processes, etc.
I once had to speak to four different Marketing Managers at an Integrity FMO, and was given four very different answers, each of which was completely wrong (which I discovered after finally speaking to carriers and getting the correct answers).

Integrity is easily one of the worst run companies I have ever seen.

My best recommendation, is stay far away from any Integrity owned FMO.

 

[Allen Trent]

First, beware.

Integrity Marketing Group (based out of TX) has been on an FMO buying spree, trying to gobble up as many FMO's across the country as they can, simply in order to reduce market competition.

FMO's, such as Agent Pipeline, Holland, NAA (Superior Performers), AGA, Premier Marketing, Western Marketing, and many others are included in their portfolio (this list can be verified/expanded via the Integrity website).

Integrity hasn't been able to grow organically, and so have had to take the FMO merger route.

Integrity hasn't been able to grow organically (i.e. gaining more Agents via better support), and so acquisitions have been their key to growth.

As per another post elsewhere:

"Welcome to the world of insurance full of empty promises and recruit anybody with a pulse."

And Integrity owned FMO's are no different, even perhaps amongst the worst offenders.

Burn & churn is the Integrity way.

Integrity has adopted a quantity over quality approach in regards to Agents.

They would rather have 100 low-producing Agents (often via lack of support) that each write only 1 app than 10 better-producing Agents that each write 10 apps.

The net dollar gain is the same for them (100 apps written is 100 apps - regardless of the sources).

Integrity only cares about Integrity.

Again, burn & churn is the m.o. for Integrity (in regards to both Agents & employees).

Perhaps worse, many Medicare carriers could care less about Integrity, and so offer little-to-no dedicated support and/or training, meaning Agents are often left completely in the dark.

Most Integrity employees themselves don't even know the process for onboarding new Agents, and so cannot offer any real help.

Even worse, Integrity has in-house CRM's & databases that are outdated by some 30+ years, but continue to pump out propaganda claiming they are "leaders" in "AI" (ha!).

Let's not ignore the massive data breach that recently occurred at some Integrity companies (a class action suit is pending).

Plus, many of those Integrity owned FMO's all operate on different systems than each other, so any one of their FMO's is largely unaware of what the other(s) are doing, and there is virtually no cohesion amongst those similarly owned FMO's (imagine the nightmare caused when several subsidiaries of the same parent company each have different policies, procedures, processes, computer systems, forms, etc.).

Worse still, many of those Integrity similarly owned FMO's simply don't get along with each other (given the lack of cohesion/cooperation between each other), and so don't even offer support for each other.
I have frequently seen employees from one Integrity owned FMO simply refuse to return calls/emails from employees of another Integrity owned FMO.

And I have never seen as many data processing errors as I have w/Integrity owned FMO's (Integrity hasn't even initiated training programs for their employees, thus many don't even know how to properly submit Agent info to conform with NIPR/licensing info, creating unnecessary delays and/or rejection when trying to onboard.

Integrity has completely ignored sustainable operations and infrastructure, meaning lack of knowledge, low efficiency, low productivity, and low effectiveness.

One of the main reasons why their Agent support is so bad.
And many Integrity Managers are amongst the least knowledgeable of products, carrier processes, etc.
I once had to speak to four different Marketing Managers at an Integrity FMO, and was given four very different answers, each of which was completely wrong (which I discovered after finally speaking to carriers and getting the correct answers).

Integrity is easily one of the worst run companies I have ever seen.

My best recommendation, is stay far away from any Integrity owned FMO.

Yup, nothing like those greedy life & Medicare IMOs screwing over all the PC agents that they don't actually contract. Wait, what?