Question about writing a few PC policies

[loudee]

After a few months I finally took my PA health exam and received my license. I intend on taking the Property Causality segment in June. Although planning to concentrate on health insurance I have a friend who would like me to write his PC insurance. He owns an electrical contractor/construction business doing 20+ million a year and growing. My question is: How would I get appointed, being I'll be writing very few PC policies besides this? There might be a few more, but like I mentioned earlier I want to focus on health. I feel there would be some lucrative commissions and don't want to let this slip by. Are there any GA's in Pennsylvania that will appoint me? I'm looking for a some advice and I'm sure one of you astute gentleman can provide it

Thanks in advance
Lou

 

[djs]

Financially, there is no way to write a 'few' P&C policies. You'll lose money doing it.

A few health policies can be done, but P&C can't be, the expenses and time commitment are much larger, making it a requirement to carry enough to cover the expenses, which makes it a requirement to have a staff person to deal with the policy service issues, which means you have to have even more to cover the staff salary.

Some of the hurdles you'll have to cross is E&O insurance. For health, you'll pay $40 a month, for P&C, especially with commercial, you'll pay $350 a month.

Now, you'll need accord forms, agency management tools, etc, forget the office, figure you'll do everything, but you'll have an overhead of at least $600 a month (probably more).

Construction is certificate city, you'll have to be ready to creat certs on the fly. Doesn't take long, but wait till a project is put on hold due to a missing cert, not pretty. This is why you need someone to do these pretty quickly, though again, with a friend, hopefully he won't drop the ball in letting you know he needs one for work that is being done tomorrow.

I don't know about PA, but I'm sure you can find a GA that will appoint you. Make sure you own the business if you decide to leave.

With commercial, you only need a few mid-size policies to pay the bills. It's a lot of work to go through for just a few policies though.

Dan

 

[loudee]

Dan,

Thanks for the quick response. I didn't realize that E&O was so much higher. Maybe I'll take a deep breath and tackle that problem next year once I educate myself.

Again Thanks,
Lou

 

[djs]

E&O is the first obstacle (financially) that you run into. It's actually not the last. Like I said, P&C is tough when its a 'few' policies. It's not hard at all when it's lots of policies, which is the only way a normal P&C agent works (there are exceptions).

Dan