Latest Independent Agencies Headlines

Texas Agent Group’s Recruiting Manager to Help Members Find Staff

Jun 9 2008 // Colleen O’Sullivan has joined the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas as the organization’s first-ever recruiting manager. Sullivan’s duties will include assisting the IIAT’s Trusted Choice...

4 Texas Agencies Picked for Big ‘I’ Best Practices Study Group

Jun 3 2008 // Austin, Texas-based Combined Agents of America LLC (CAA) announced four of its member agencies, Bigham-Kliewer-Chapman-Watts, Bryan Insurance, Pierson & Fendley and Weatherby-Eisenrich, were selected to participated...

Encompass Adds New Products for Independent Agents in Minnesota

May 20 2008 // Minnesota insurance agents now can offer customers a new product that combines accident forgiveness and more discounts with rating tiers to help keep rates competitive, according to Northbrook, Ill.-based Encompass...

Insurer Executives Say More Can be Done to Attract New Talent

May 19 2008 // Encompass, The Hartford execs note that agents stand on solid ground in their role as trusted advisors Young agents today face a number of challenges, including the soft market, a downturn in the economy, and learning the...

Mass. Agents Take Aim at Progressive Online; Insurer Defends Site

May 6 2008 // Independent agents in Massachusetts have charged that Progressive Insurance, which began selling auto insurance online in the state May 1, is skirting state regulations and misleading consumers with its Web site quoting...

People

May 5 2008 // Charlotte, N.C.-based wholesale insurance broker AmWINS Group, Inc. has named James Drinkwater president of its AmWINS Brokerage division. Drinkwater will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the division. Prior...

Agents and the Recession: Agents Tend to Fare Better Than Their Customers

Apr 22 2008 // Main Street independent insurance agents could take a bigger hit than their larger counterparts as an economic recession lands on top of the soft market. The soft market coinciding with a bad economy is a real challenge...

Apr 21 2008 // People Michigan-based J.M. Wilson recently announced three new staff members, Danielle Crandell, Eric Maus and Jeanne Callan. Crandell was hired as a transportation underwriter. She will service commercial trucking...

Agents’ Workload Goes Up as Economy, Compensation Move Down

Apr 21 2008 // Soft market, economic downturn, consumer advocacy translate into more work for agencies Insurance Journal‘s Editor-in-Chief Andrea Wells was at the Big “I” Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.,...

White Papers and Blueprints: Agents Chart Their Own Regulatory Future

Apr 21 2008 // Independent agents hold onto market share, prepare for post-November election politics Insurance Journal‘s Editor-in-Chief Andrea Wells interviewed Robert Rusbuldt, CEO and president of the Independent Insurance...

Top 100 Property Casualty Independent Agencies

Apr 21 2008 // About This Report: The soft market had its effect on this year’s Top 100. But despite challenging soft market conditions, 15 of the privately-owned agencies and brokerages on Insurance Journal‘s Top 100...

During a Recession, Agents Tend to Fare Better Than Their Customers

Apr 7 2008 // Agents writing residential contractors feel recession first; manufacturing, retail segments follow Main Street independent insurance agents could take a bigger hit than their larger counterparts as an economic recession...

What America’s Young Insurance Agents Like Most About Being Agents

Apr 4 2008 // According to a new Insurance Journal survey, among the many things America’s young independent insurance agents like about their jobs is the money. Forty-three percent pull in between $51,000 and $100,000 a year,...

Long Island Agent Wins Award from National Trade Group

Apr 4 2008 // Vincent A. Alba, vice president of MRW Group Inc. in Huntington, New York, has been given the Barney Burns Award by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America. The award recognizes the insurance agent or...

Agents and Brokers: Deadline to Submit for IJ’s Top 100, April 4

Mar 25 2008 // Insurance Journal is on the search for the nation’s leading privately-held property casualty independent agencies and brokerages for its annual Top 100 Property/Casualty Independent Insurance Agencies report. Now,...

Who’s Worth What in the Independent Agency System?

Mar 25 2008 // Fewer independent agencies gave salary increases to managers, sales producers and support personnel in 2007 compared to 2006, while half of all agencies reported that salaries stayed the same in 2007 compared to 2006. Of...

50 Things Independent Agents Like LEAST

Mar 24 2008 // The exclusive 2008 Insurance Journal Survey of Young Agents asked independent agents under 40 years old what they like least about being an independent agent. Here’s what some of the 360 agents who took the survey...

101 Things Independent Agents Like MOST

Mar 24 2008 // The exclusive 2008 Insurance Journal Survey of Young Agents asked independent agents under 40 years old: What do you like most about being an independent agent? Here’s what some of the 360 agents who took the survey...

America’s Young Insurance Agents: Love and Optimism in the Workplace

Mar 24 2008 // “I wanted a job I could love,” says 29-year-old Meghan McGarry. She found it when she first went to work in an independent insurance agency in New York. Four and one-half years later, and now handling small...

Mass. Agents Find Out What Their Auto Customers are Thinking

Mar 24 2008 // As Massachusetts independent agents enter a new era in auto insurance, they can’t help but be a bit anxious. After all, they have for years had a lock on more than 85 percent of the auto market under the previous...