Carrier Rating Notifications. What responsibility does an agency have to notify clients of carrier ratings? On new business, it is a good idea to list the carrier’s rating. However, if the carrier has an A.M. Best rating of less than …
Personal Lines Liability Limits. If an agency has only offered a client $100,000 liability and they have a $300,000 claim, what do you think the answer will be when, on the witness stand, their attorney asks them whether they would …
E&S Binding Limits. Extremely few, if any, retail agencies have any binding authority whatsoever with their E&S brokers. This is such a simple E&O tip that most readers probably see it as a complete waste of blog space. My field …
AOR/BOR Procedures. If the current agent is so good, why is the insured moving their policy? AOR/BOR selling strategies have increased in popularity exponentially over the last decade. Some sales consultants and producers also like the strategy because they think …
Record Retention. It’s not as simple as everyone thinks. Significant and dangerous myths exist relative to this increasingly important topic. The first myth is that “records” means all records, not just paper records. Second, the solution is not to keep …
Felony Background Checks. An important step in hiring people. If an employee has a felony conviction and the agency has not obtained the proper waiver from their state’s insurance department, the agency may be violating the Violent Crimes Act. Some …
Flood Insurance. Who Ever Said Mortgage Companies Know Everything About Flood Insurance? In agency after agency I visit, flood insurance is usually only offered to people if their mortgage company requires it. De facto, this means the agency is accepting …
Job Descriptions. A simple solution to minimizing E&O exposures. One of the most significant E&O exposures is literally a “he said, she said” issue. Producers think a CSR will do something and CSRs think the producer is doing it. The …
Agency Catastrophe Plans. How to keep a catastrophe from becoming an even bigger catastrophe. I don’t know who said it, but they correctly concluded that the best E&O audit is a natural catastrophe because so many clients have claims and …
Bond Specifications & Company Ratings. Do you check? When commercial clients need a bond, they almost always have a contract that requires the bond meet certain specifications. Among those specifications is the bond be issued by an insurance company with …
