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Rural community worked best for me, however I would be careful not to share that community with an independent who has an Allstate appt. A few years back Allstate doled out a few of these appts to indys in smaller outlying areas to extend their reach where there were few if any EA's. They do let you broker Comml thru NE Agencies which had 5or 6 of the top carriers with a fairly narrow appetitie, plus their small fleet auto was terrific for your local artisans (plumbers, etc). # of policies will depend on your overhead and what the mgmnt at the time tells you you had better produce. My best suggestion is to locate in a rural market where there may be an old timer who might even befreind you and eventually consider selling his book to you after you have proven yourself to be successful in your own right. But unlike Prog or Geico, and herein lies a problem for many, they will demand you write a certain amount of life production annually and you will get the dreaded termination letter (still pay you for your book) but none the less they dont accept you just writing auto and home. And over the years this has steadily increased. When I was with them they started it, 10k was the first year req'd. Not a big deal, then they upped it to 25k, and I have no idea where it is now. But a couple of the old agents who just were not up to the task got hassled for a couple of years and finally forced to sell. How forced you ask, lets just say they will routinely come into your office to "discuss" your life production. If you dont mind kissing a%# now and then and can politic ok, you should be fine. But for some of us this just gals us when some new Area Manager with his H2O bottle in hand, drving his company car and he is going to come in and tell me how I need to be doing this or doing that, all the while Im paying the rent. Agent I worked for 2 weeks which you have to do as part of training, has been an Allstater since Sears days, he is one of the handful who has done very well. Overtime bought up other retiring agents books as well. You have to be in good standing with Allstate as far as your production (incl life) for them to consider you for this purpose, and he was. Anyway he always told me, he said from time to time Allstate will change their appetite for what they wish to write usually through rates &/or moritoriums. My attitude has always been Ill just take the biz somewhere else, which of course as a captive they dont allow it, and if you get caught your done yesterday! But he always took the approach "write what you can when you can". What an optimist, and a great captive Allstate agent, financially and otherwise. Of course years later now I look back and realize he had the benefit of writing his first 100pif starting from an Allstate booth in Sears, which now a days doesnt exist. Starting from scratch if all you want to do is build an agency, might not be such a good idea with Allstate. Why settle for 10% when you can get 15-20%+ as an indy for one thing? But if you have a plan to be a company man so to speak, and drink the koolaid, with the idea you will write what you can, with the intent of position yourself as a fine Allstate follower, so that you too can buy up some books around you then go for it.
O
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On one other note, depending on the AM, they arent going to ever allow you to be an absentee owner. They will expect you to be in the office most of the time. Of course if you become a superstar and write a boat load of biz that they want and your very profitable, etc etc. then you will be given more elbow room which goes without saying, most smart AM's will give their best producers a little more wiggle room to be more of themselves, but the idea of "they" letting you doenst work for me personally and that is why I am not there any more.
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I had a claim with Progressive, they do an awesome job! Geico is swell to, so while I agree that at claim time this is a chance for the agent to "shine" and you better, Prog & Geico shine pretty well for me from my experience. So that might be tough to convince someone that is not so without disagreeing, and then your arguing with a customer and that you can never win. Ive heard complaints over the years about almost all of them, I have to say one of my current P&C carriers who I think frankly is almost too generous, and this again is only from my own experieince, but that is Travelers. They do a bang up job when it comes to paying, no little tricks and crap to make the client feel cheated or short changed. But there again as an independent I like the choice of being able to take someone to Prog, Travelers or Safeco for instance. Who has the best rate and if the prospect says I dont like so and so, well I agree Mr Smith, that is why we offer these two other carriers now.... if you prospect says to his allstate agent your rates are too high or my brother had a bad claims experience, what are you gonna do? Write what you can or argue with him? For the right person captive will work, for the rest of us screw it. And if you think your somehow magically going to avoid having to prospect because now you have an Allstate sign on your front door, think again. So why are you considering becoming a captive agent? If it's a lack of experieince, than it might be a great way to start, no doubt.
O
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On one other note, depending on the AM, they arent going to ever allow you to be an absentee owner. They will expect you to be in the office most of the time. Of course if you become a superstar and write a boat load of biz that they want and your very profitable, etc etc. then you will be given more elbow room which goes without saying, most smart AM's will give their best producers a little more wiggle room to be more of themselves, but the idea of "they" letting you doenst work for me personally and that is why I am not there any more.
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I had a claim with Progressive, they do an awesome job! Geico is swell to, so while I agree that at claim time this is a chance for the agent to "shine" and you better, Prog & Geico shine pretty well for me from my experience. So that might be tough to convince someone that is not so without disagreeing, and then your arguing with a customer and that you can never win. Ive heard complaints over the years about almost all of them, I have to say one of my current P&C carriers who I think frankly is almost too generous, and this again is only from my own experieince, but that is Travelers. They do a bang up job when it comes to paying, no little tricks and crap to make the client feel cheated or short changed. But there again as an independent I like the choice of being able to take someone to Prog, Travelers or Safeco for instance. Who has the best rate and if the prospect says I dont like so and so, well I agree Mr Smith, that is why we offer these two other carriers now.... if you prospect says to his allstate agent your rates are too high or my brother had a bad claims experience, what are you gonna do? Write what you can or argue with him? For the right person captive will work, for the rest of us screw it. And if you think your somehow magically going to avoid having to prospect because now you have an Allstate sign on your front door, think again. So why are you considering becoming a captive agent? If it's a lack of experieince, than it might be a great way to start, no doubt.
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