SIAA Alliance for Independent Insurance Agents

[oicu812nbama]

Has P&C appointments always been like this or is this a more recent development?

i can only speak for the last eight years, but you can walk into a captive p and c carrier and sign a contract to write business next week. you can access all their lines and submit just about anything commercial/personal. with indy carriers they want you to have an existing indy carrier book of around $300,000 first. this forum is full of people asking the best way of getting that first 300k without losing your shirt. then you will have volume commitments with that indy carrier so you will have to hire a producer if you want to add another direct contract and so on and so forth. clusters promise a quicker way around this, but i haven't found one in my area that does what they promise, yet.
i do not claim to be an expert. just trying to help...

 

[HealthGuy]

p and c is a contracting scam from top to bottom

 

[Herkster]

Alright, so at risk of looking like a fool, I'm going to ask anyways.
What companies does SIAA have access to that agents can get that are contracted with them?

I joined an agency that already holds contracts and we aren't through a cluster or any sort, so I just don't get a lot of the conversations on this board in that regard.

 

[oicu812nbama]

in theory, an agent can pay an initiation fee and commission cut to get 15% direct contracts to several (15-20 carriers) with no production requirements. having access without production requirements is the freedom that people dream of. people get on here and say that siaa actually does this while others say they do not. when i called two different master agencies, they said they would show me how to write a business plan and use their political clout to get me a couple appointments. (with production requirements) which i could do on my own without a fee. they were gracious enough to say that i could use their carriers at a brokered commission rate however. (which again, I could do on my own without a fee). i was very disappointed in the master agencies in my area since i highly doubt people would get on here and lie about their experiences.

 

[roxiepup]

I would post this as a new thread if I could, but I don't have enough posts to qualify. Since this question is related to clusters and evaluating the opportunities regarding the bonus portion of the contracts, I hope you don't mind I post my question here....


I'm doing some analysis of various IA contract opportunities and how profitability bonus may come into play. I'm coming from captive so need help from you IA guys.

To qualify for profitability bonus with most carriers in p and C, what is the loss ratio % you need to hit, to qualify? Is there a difference between personal lines and commercial, and if so, what is it?

And for all you iAs out there, what is your average loss ratio, your median, and what is the standard deviation (or variance) from the median? Basically I want to figure out if most people either clearly HIT the loss ratio target or don't hit it (which would be a large standard deviation). Or, is there a small standard deviation / variance, most of the time, and is it kind of a crap shoot whether you make the cut to get the bonus or not?

Thanks so much for any info!

 

[Tylerstc]

Not all carriers give bonuses, but generally it's around 60% loss ratio to qualify for bonus. This, of course, varies from each carrier, cluster, etc.

 

[grav758]

great thread!Lots of useful information

 

[scooter33]

great thread!Lots of useful information

And what is your conclusion?

 

[ims01]

I heard there are some clusters now that charge a flat monthly fee no matter your production. Has anyone come across one of these?

 

[PhilL]

I heard there are some clusters now that charge a flat monthly fee no matter your production. Has anyone come across one of these?

Ed, The answer to your question is "yes". The various agency network (cluster) plans are many and they are definitely different. Some even differ from State to State, in terms of how they charge fees. For example, some charge an initiation fee only, others an initiation fee plus a monthly fee, some no initiation fee, some no monthly fee and there are others that charge a monthly fee but stop doing so when a certain level of written premium is achieved.

As you can see, it is all over the board.

I can give you some clarification and additional thoughts if you want to reach me through my website.