Latest Agencies Headlines

How P&C Agents Can Benefit from Upcoming Health Insurance Boom

Jul 7 2010 // For independent insurance agents, upcoming healthcare reform could be an opportunity to gain a bigger share of the health insurance and benefits market, provided they can properly advise their customers about their...

10 New York Students Among 58 InVEST Scholarship Winners

Jul 7 2010 // InVEST, the insurance industry’s career education program, has awarded $56,500 in scholarships to 58 college-bound students pursuing insurance-related degrees, including 10 students from New York. Patrick Moore,...

Farmers Introduces Institutional Business Owners Policy Through Texas Agents

Jul 7 2010 // Farmers Group of Cos. has introduced an institutional business owners policy (iBOP) for institutions across America, which will be offered by Farmers agents in Texas. iBOP is designed to serve a spectrum of religious...

Washington Agents Advised to Update Listing on OIC Web Site

Jul 7 2010 // Washington agents and brokers are being advised to update the licensing business address with the Office of the Insurance Commissioner. In October, the OIC will launch a new search feature on its Web site to help consumers...

E&O Insights: “Let Me Think About It … “

Jul 6 2010 // When uttered together by a client, the five words in the headline of this article are — potentially — very dangerous words. Note the following claim and ask yourself, “Could this happen in my agency?” The...

Connecticut Warns Agents over Surplus Lines Placements

Jul 5 2010 // The Connecticut Insurance Department is warning producers against placing coastal homeowners in the surplus lines market if an admitted insurer has offered to renew their policies. Doing so violates Connecticut law, and in...

New Jersey to Cease Printing Agents’ and Adjusters’ Licenses

Jul 5 2010 // Print it yourself. That’s what New Jersey’s insurance regulator is telling insurance agents about their insurance licenses. The department has issued a new bulletin advising agents and public adjusters in the...

The Great Unbundling

Jul 5 2010 // Rightly or wrongly, the six-year-old battle over the payment of contingent commissions is reshaping the way the insurance-selling industry gets paid. It’s a practice that, at least for the big brokers, is vanishing....

The Great Unbundling

Jul 5 2010 // Rightly or wrongly, the six-year-old battle over the payment of contingent commissions is reshaping the way the insurance-selling industry gets paid. It’s a practice that, at least for the big brokers, is vanishing....

People

Jul 5 2010 // The Independent Insurance Agents of Texas (IIAT) elected David Wood, vice president and partner at Bogan, Dunlap & Wood Insurance in Odessa, to serve as the association’s president for 2010-2011. Other newly...

Jul 5 2010 // Congress’s inability to act leaves many in flood prone areas vulnerable – for the second time this year and the fourth in 12 months’ time. When it rains it pours, as the saying goes. By extension, one...

Behavioral Economics and Insurance

Jul 5 2010 // Making and Keeping Profitable Customer Relationships How much of our decision-making is really up to us? It turns out many decisions might be made before we can even act. When new employees were given a choice to join a...

USLI Expanding with Retail Agent Distribution; No Longer Exclusively Wholesale

Jul 5 2010 // After years of doing business exclusively though wholesale brokers, United States Liability Insurance Group (USLI) is expanding its distribution to work directly with retail insurance agencies. “We are expanding our...

What Agents Think Makes a Great Insurance Carrier Field Rep

Jul 5 2010 // Underwriting Authority, Marketing Assistance and Communication Considered Valuable Traits Independent insurance agents often rate a carrier with great field representatives higher than others – sometimes elevating...

Hit a Home Run with Wholesalers

Jul 5 2010 // How to Make Wholesale-Agent Partnerships Work It’s no secret. Insurance is a relationship business. And the agent-wholesale broker relationship is no exception. The continued soft market hasn’t stifled...

Tower Completes Acquisition of OneBeacon’s Personal Lines Business

Jul 1 2010 // Tower Group Inc. has completed its acquisition of the personal lines business of OneBeacon Insurance Group for $167 million. The completed transaction includes the acquisition by Towers of Massachusetts Homeland Insurance...

NationAir Selected as Broker for Cessna Affiliates Insurance Program

Jul 1 2010 // NationAir Aviation Insurance President Jeff Bauer announced that the West Chicago, Ill.-based company has been selected by XL Insurance to serve as a broker in the Cessna Affiliates Insurance Program. The program offers...

New Jersey Agent Allegedly Made Up Company, Kept Premiums

Jul 1 2010 // A New Jersey grand jury has indicted a Burlington County insurance agent for pocketing payments from three clients, according to Attorney General Paula T. Dow. Lee Schaffer, of Marlton, was charged with insurance fraud,...

Webinar to Help P&C Agents Benefit from Health Insurance Boom Under Reform Law

Jul 1 2010 // For independent insurance agents, upcoming healthcare reform could be an opportunity to gain a bigger share of the health insurance and benefits market, provided they can properly advise their customers about their...

NetComp Opens Workers Comp Program to Agents in 5 States

Jul 1 2010 // NetComp Insurance, a newly-formed program manager based in Columbia, S.C., has opened its online program (www.netcompinsurance.com) for small to-mid size workers’ compensation business to all independent agents in...