Latest Chris Burand Headlines
All the headlines from our Chris Burand Topic Page, ordered by recency.
The Competitive Advantage: A Scary Trend
Jan 8 2018 // Maybe “trend” is inaccurate because the data is scant, or maybe “trend” is a presage. The “trend” does not yet exist, but it will. The “trend” is companies taking drastic...
The Competitive Advantage: Who Needs Insurance?
Dec 4 2017 // Who needs insurance? Not the perfect risk, other than for contractual and legal reasons. The perfect risk has absolutely no chance, not even remotely, of incurring a loss. If an account has almost no probability of...
The Competitive Advantage: Changes
Nov 6 2017 // With complete and all due respect to David Bowie’s song, “Changes,” it is time, if the reader wants to thrive in the future, to accept the wisdom of his lyric, “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. Turn and face...
10 Agency Accounting Tips to Keep in Mind
Oct 2 2017 // Accounting practices for independent insurance agencies differ greatly from those traditionally used by other small businesses. Below are 10 tips for your agency’s accounting department. 1. Don’t Use...
The Competitive Advantage: Let’s Eradicate Incompetency
Sep 4 2017 // I recently wrote an article describing my horrendous experience purchasing a new life insurance policy. I criticized the industry for employing incompetent people and egregious renewal offers. Several readers rose to...
The Competitive Advantage: On the Other Side of the Desk
Aug 7 2017 // It is always interesting to be on the other side of a desk. I’m always consulting and writing on “all things” insurance but I’m not always buying insurance. This year I purchased a couple of new...
State of P/C Insurance Industry, Part 1: The Fate of ‘Hard Market’ Agencies (and Companies)
Jul 10 2017 // Property/casualty (P/C) insurance and group benefits industry is changing faster than ever. Many factors are the parents of such change. In part one of this two part series, I will focus on the more traditional aspects and...
Burand’s State of P/C Insurance Industry Part 2: How to Pick Winners as More Carriers Consolidate or Waste Away
Jul 9 2017 // Editor’s Note: This is the second of two articles by Burand based on his most recent 50-page whitepaper, State of the P&C Insurance Industry 2017. The whitepaper is available from Insurance Journal’s...
Burand’s State of P/C Insurance Industry, Part 1: Agencies Facing Paradigm Shift
Jun 13 2017 // Editor’s Note: This is the first of two articles by Burand based on his most recent 50-page whitepaper, State of the P&C Insurance Industry 2017. The whitepaper is available from Insurance Journal’s...
A Few E&O Tips to Watch: Certificates, Carrier Ratings and Alternative Markets
Jun 5 2017 // It seems agencies today have more challenges than ever. Below are three tips to reduce errors and omissions (E&O) exposures. 1. Send Certificates of Insurance I would love to share with you a story regarding a...
The Competitive Advantage: Agency-Carrier Contract Negotiations
May 1 2017 // One of the worst sentences a contract attorney’s clients can hear when that attorney is opining on some onerous clause is absolutely the phrase: “I can win this in court.” For example, when a carrier...
The Competitive Advantage: Insurance is Losing the Battle of Public Relations
Mar 6 2017 // Flooding in southern Louisiana in the late summer of 2016 revealed 86 percent of flooded homes had no flood insurance. No flood insurance next door to one of our nation’s — and that state’s —...
The Competitive Advantage: The Importance of Proper Accounting in Insurance Agencies
Feb 6 2017 // Independent insurance agencies’ accounting methods and contractual and legal requirements are unique, especially considering how lax enforcement is when all 50 states and the federal government have long-standing...
The Competitive Advantage: Loss Ratios – Do They Matter?
Jan 9 2017 // Do loss ratios matter? The old school answer is: “Absolutely! You are crazy for even asking the question!” Of course, loss ratios still matter, but how much they matter and how they matter may no longer be the...
The Competitive Advantage: Agency Owners of Yesterday and Today
Dec 5 2016 // When I began my career, many agency owners I met had founded their agencies in the Great Depression. To this day, I am amazed that anyone in the middle of a truly horrible economic depression would open a property/casualty...
The Competitive Advantage: Are Your Companies Stealing Your Expirations?
Nov 7 2016 // Three times in three months now, I have seen major carriers “provide” contracts that in some cases outright take ownership of agency expirations and in another case only take an “interest” in them....
Strategic Carrier Mistakes and New Blood Opportunities
Oct 3 2016 // Carriers have made a huge mistake. Most do not yet get it. Some never will grasp the mistake they’ve made. Some will know but will forever deny they have made the mistake. However, it is a strategic mistake...
Why Agency Owners Employ Producers Who Cannot or Will Not Sell
Sep 6 2016 // I have analyzed more than 700 data points specifying what producers generate in commissions versus what they are paid as a percentage of their commissions. I must emphasize that this is verified data. I did not take the...
Agencies’ Greatest Struggle
Aug 8 2016 // An agency’s greatest struggle, per many surveys, is finding staff and producers. What if they were as available as different loaves of bread and you could go to a supermarket to purchase producers and...
The Competitive Advantage: Facts, Face ‘Em, Focus on ‘Em, Go Forward
Jul 11 2016 // One well-known youth program in the U.S. is 4-H, which stands for head, hands, heart and health. The concept is for youths to learn a whole-health approach to life. The whole-health life approach is a proven successful way...
