P&C Service - Captive Vs Independent

[Bertolinoins]

^ ideal situation imo... Are the service centers directly related to the carrier? Is this an option of a commission split for this type of service? This is where having had experience in the indy side would have been beneficial for me before jumping right in....good thing though is when you start indy its not like starting cative (i hope) in the sense that i started with a book of business and had to learn 80+ policies on Sf side plus theirpolicies and procedures while already having clientele. I think starting scratch allows for a more gradual learning curve of the options and procedures of how you want to run your agency.

At first my wife and i will be producing and servicing but if were doing things correctly should not deal with much service in the first year. Letting me plan for how i want to service down the road

I give up 1-2% on service center accounts. It is a great deal in my opinion.

 

[infoe]

sound's like a great deal, did you use them from the very beginning? You still have CSR'S I assume, so what fills their day? does it just allow for less CSR's per household/policy that you have? did you start this practice from the beginning of your agency? Lastly, who do you work with as the service center... would you recommend them?

Thanks as usual Joe for the good info.

 

[chickenfarmer]

After getting smacked around a little from RBA this has turned into a very informative thread.. Thanks!

 

[Guest]

chicken, there was no smacking around, you asked a fairly dumb question.
Why would you think servicing between captive and IA is any different?

Granted on the IA side, we might have a few more options, but the service centers are a fairly new thing.

but there is no difference in servicing accounts, its the same, maybe done in a little different way.

 

[Bertolinoins]

sound's like a great deal, did you use them from the very beginning? You still have CSR'S I assume, so what fills their day? does it just allow for less CSR's per household/policy that you have? did you start this practice from the beginning of your agency? Lastly, who do you work with as the service center... would you recommend them?

Thanks as usual Joe for the good info.

I started from the beginning when I opened 3.5
years ago. My agency is 80% commercial so my
CSR's fill their days servicing those accounts and
marketing new business. At this point I only have 488 personal lines accounts (right under 1000 accounts). I have a full time PL agent starting in two weeks as I am hoping to grow my PL book so I a closer to 50/50 PL/CL. I use service centers with Travelers, Allied, Hartford, CIG Safeco and Mercury. I am not sure about Met Life. We have not have any issues with any of them. We conference them in on the calls and then diary for
my CSR's to send a follow up call and email the next day to make sure everything was handled and the client is happy.

 

[chickenfarmer]

Haha RBA I was just kidding.. Your reputation precedes you!