Partner with a Local P&C Agent?

[insuranceexec]

all of this partnering with P&C agents sounds very interesting.

I am currently a L&H agent with MassMutual. I am not a captive agent.

Now how do i go about partnering up with P&C agents and do what some of you are doing? is it a problem that i am with massmutual?

or is it just as easy as just partnering up and referring each other business?

just curious because i want to expand my market and network.

Check with MM to see what their guidelines are on "affinity marketing arrangements"; this should help answer your question.

 

[djs]

Well, I sold my first P&C to myself. Gotta luv it. Need to build clients quickly, any ideas?

Get married and sell to your new wife's family. Make sure she comes from a large family!

Already married? Don't tell your new wife.

Dan

 

[souldeux]

Hell, I'd have never made rent my first month in sales if my fiancee's family hadn't bought from me

 

[SkyTower]

Get married and sell to your new wife's family. Make sure she comes from a large family!

Already married? Don't tell your new wife.

Dan

Well Dan I prefer men. My logo must have a male aura. Most men like it. I am a woman (pic on website skytowerinsurance.com) trying to make it in P&C.

 

[Alston]

Good luck with that. How are you going to split expenses? If its even, the p/c guy is going to get the short end of the stick because his commissions are typically lowest.

The P&C agent will have a much bigger market when compared to the health agent. This assumes that the health agent is selling individual plans.

 

[bill3173]

I am an Independent L&H agent and was speaking with an agent in Florida today.

He suggested that I partner with a local P&C agent to share leads, give each other referrals and share the expense of doing Direct Mail postcards together as a "full service agency".

Any thoughts or suggestions on this idea?

I've done this before, and it can work, but you may need to proceed cautiously.

If he is truly p&c, no life or health and doing well, you can really build a good partnership.

If the agent has life and health contracts, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. You could actually end up losing your clients.

Way more agents claim to do this successfully than actually do it.

 

[insuranceexec]

I've done this before, and it can work, but you may need to proceed cautiously.

If he is truly p&c, no life or health and doing well, you can really build a good partnership.

If the agent has life and health contracts, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. You could actually end up losing your clients.

Way more agents claim to do this successfully than actually do it.

The way it worked for me was to bring a P&C agent in after everything else was set up.

I had the Life guy, annuity guy, individual/group health guy, securities guy, attorney, and the accountant. We were in business for about a two years before we brought a P&C agent into the mix.

What I had everybody do was to get P&C licensed; so that we could share in on the commission. We are paying him a salary and a small bonus every month. This has worked out extremely well. We then cross-sell each others book.

The problem with this model is that the securities guy and the annuity guy will normally have disagreements with what should be done with the customers money. Being that I was both the security person and the annuity guy; I often to do not disagree with myself.......LOL.

I own the office that we are all in, so it again makes this model easier to work. Having everyone spread out reduces the level of urgency that is needed into todays environment to make this model work. I hope this helps.

 

[mazz8]

I'm a mainly P&C agent, with L&H license. Why would I give a L&H Agent access to my customers? Thats money I'm losing.

 

[djs]

Life and health is a distraction to a lot of P&C agents. That said, most P&C agents are pretty greedy and don't want to give away an opportunity to gain a stronger foothold into a household.

Heck, that's what I've been taught, 'be the insurance guy', not the P&C guy, not the life guy, whatever. I take care of my clients..... Now, if they have a 40 story skyscraper (or a dump truck), I'll refer this business out. Don't do enough of it to make it worth my while.

Life & health are bad distractions, but they are my customers needs and as such, I take care of them.

Dan