As an insurance agent there are two things that I hear from prospective clients more than anything else: “I have an insurance agent already” and “I’ve been working with the same agent for years.” Those statements are usually followed closely by some variation of “How can you do it for less” or “What kind of service am I going to receive?”. I’m going to give you some facts, and opinions, to address all of those statements, right now.
Fact: Which insurance carrier has the most aggressive rates for any given industry changes regularly.
The reason for this is that insurance companies build what are called “risk pools.” The more claims are made by policy holders, the higher loss ratio within the risk pool, which increases the premiums for all members of the pool. When a carrier is building a new pool, they put out aggressive rates to attract new policies. If you have renewed the same policy for more than 2-3 years, you are almost guaranteed to be paying more than you should be.
You may have heard the term “Assigned Risk Pool”, this is a pool of policies which are placed with carriers through your states fund. In short, the Assigned Risk Pool is meant to be a market of last resort for high-risk companies. The state fund usually has the highest rates available for all class codes because the carriers in these programs are forced to take every policy, and are generally taking on high risk customers. If you haven’t heard of the Assigned Risk Pool, and don’t know whether your policy is being placed there, you can read more about it here.
In addition, if you are in the Assigned Risk Pool and don’t know why, or don’t think you should be, you definitely need to read this article.
Opinion: There are two types of insurance agents in our industry: those that sell a product, and those that provide a service.
The product is any policy, with any carrier, that you have ever signed. It may have been the very best product available to you two years ago, but is it still the best product for your business today? The answer is likely no The agent who provides a product sets up the policy, puts the client into a renewal pattern, and goes off to sell more products.
The insurance agent who provides a service recognizes that his job is to manage the clients risk exposure, and in the end, the clients bottom line. This agent actively hunts for the best products for his clients real time needs on an ongoing basis. If you are renewing with this agent, it’s not because “you’ve been with them for a long time”, it’s because he is an integral part of your risk management strategy for your business and your bottom line is as important to him as it is to you. Think about who your best manager is. Now imagine them not only working for free, but saving you an additional 10-30% on all of your purchases…simply because they work for you. That is what you are getting when you have an insurance agent who believes insurance is a service they provide, rather than just a product that they sell.
Let me ask you a few questions about the service you are currently receiving:
• How long does it take for your agent too send out certificates for you?
• Is answer is more that 15-20 minutes on average?
• How many carriers is your agent quoting your account with every year?
• Is the answer less than a minimum of 3?
• Have the prices on your policies been slowly rising year after year?
• When is the last time your prices went down instead of up?
• When you speak with your agent, do they take the time to explain every thing you want to know about your coverage, or do you feel like they are always in a rush?
• Do you have the personal cell phone number of the agency owner and are you able to call anytime with questions or concerns?
We provide this level of service for the rest of our clients, and we would like the opportunity to provide this service for you. We only need about 10 minutes of your time to go over the information that we need to get you a firmed up quote. Do not wait until the last minute, we need time to work with the underwriters to get you the best coverage at the best price possible , so give us a shout and let us get to work for you!
