Questions About Working with Wholesalers

[thecarguy]

Then I guess it would be best to sign with smart choice for standard and I could sign with ins noodle as well as a back up, especially for commercial. If you look under the products and services tab on smart choice's website, it says you have direct access to the companies, with binding authority, your own producer codes and your name appears on the policy. So I am understanding it that with smart choice they get 30% of your commission until you hit a 50k book of business and then you get 100% on the book over 50k?

 

[redsquash]

Caryguy, I'm just curious why do you want to sign two seperate contracts with SmartChoice, AND Noodles for personal and commercials. Smartchoice also does Commercials, so if you do both with them, you can sooner meet their 50k requirements and keep the 100% of the excess commission over 50k.

 

[Cali_jake]

I just signed up with superior access and they seem to be pretty good with car insurance, commercial take a llllllllooooooooooooong time, most of the stuff has to be done on paper. Not having binding authority sucks. Smart choice requires 25k in premium every year for every carrier you get appointed with. So the best thing to do is to go with Superior access and place business with the companies that smart choice has and then roll it over. This is the easiest way.

 

[redsquash]

" So the best thing to do is to go with Superior access and place business with the companies that smart choice has and then roll it over. This is the easiest way."


What I know about all these wholesalers is that, you dont own any business if you ever want to leave them. Also I dont think rolling over the business FROM a wholesaler is that easy. If you have an existing independent agency, you can rollover TO a wholesaler, but rolling over FROM wont be that easy. So, its very important who do you go with. SecureAgent, I think will keep on paying you renewal commission even if you leave them (as long as you;re licensed)

If SmartChoice requirs 25k in premium, that should not be difficult - just write all your business to one carrier, and get appointed with one only. By the way, what happens if you dont do 25k in premium with any carrier? I guess you can rollover to another carrier "within" the same wholesaler.

 

[Jerbond]

A little off topic, but what's the big deal about owning a book of business? If you have a good relationship with a client, won't they follow you wherever you go? For example, I f I were a farmers agent, and then I decide to go to allstate, wont't that customer go with me (especially if the rate is lower?) Some places have that non compete thing, but really- does that even hold any weight?

 

[moeasadi]

If you are captive agent and you leave that co.(Farmers) you have to submit all your files to your DM office and can not contact those clients anymore.Otherwise if you are independent you can always get a BOR and transfer that client to yourself and your agency.

 

[txagt39]

Not all customers will follow the agent, many are loyal to the brand, many just don't like change, and many just don't want the hassel of changing companies. Even more important is pricing and level of service. Company folks will always tell you not to sell price but that is totally rediculous, price is always at the top of the list of priorities. The folks that say never sell on price do not sell, they are managers or administrators, they have no idea what it's like in the real world of being an agent. They are administrative because they can't sell most often. I've used Superior Access multiple times and it never fails, they never have an appetite for what I need. The cost at $100 per month is not appealing for those rare occasions where they might have a market for something you can't place elsewhere. Try it, there's no committment, which is a nice thing. Your experience with them may be better. If you get in with a good brokerage house you can do the same thing and collect all the commission without having to split it.

 

[tospears]

Wholesalers are a necessary evil as many new agencies cannot land the major appointments. We're using Tapco and a few others right now. They are pretty helpful and to the point. I recently wrote a CGL for a kiosk in a local mall. The quoting and binding process is uber simple. The whole process took 2days, but that was due to underwriting approval for higher limits.

I call them an evil for the simple reason that they collect a portion of our commisions.

 

[txagt39]

I understand the frustration of hating to share commission but if you look at it another way if you didn't have a market for it, 100% of nothing is still nothing. Just consider it another revenue stream and hopefully you can sell that client something else that you don't have to share the commission on, if you don't another agent will. I was glad to see that Tapco can fill some gaps, I get their marketing cards all the time but I've never tried them. I'll give them a look for kiosk vendors in our mall as well, while we still have a mall that is.