Insurance Journal Forums

http://www.chamberagent.com....Contractors California Yes...and they have no Retail Agency.

An MGA having a retail agency is not so uncommon:

<a href='http://www.intercontinentalinsurance.com' target='_blank'>Intercontinental Insurance</a>

Rob, I have thought long and hard on the issues of doing business with someone who at the same time tries to be my wholesaler and is in competition with me directly, like insurance noodel. I suppose for me that I won't do business with my competition for two reasons.
1. Ethics: I have a real problem with any company, not just insurance noodle that says on the one hand we're here to help the agency system on the other hand they do business direct with the public (your customers and mine). Rob, that's our job, career and livelihood.
2. Survival: I understand your difficulty in finding markets, BUT to do business with insurance noodle (your competition) is like saying "I don't have any markets and because of it my business is suffering. So I am going to pay and feed my competion so that my business and all of our business can suffer in a different way." Doing business with your competition in this way is like saying that my head hurts, they offer aspirin with cyanide in it so I am going to harm myself in a different way. If you spent half the time being vocal with Insurance Noodel about changing their practices as you do here in this forum being an obvious advertiser for them, they may change their policy to all of our benefit.

Insurance Noodel is in direct competition with every agent in America. They sell direct to the public from the very home page of their website. I cannot give them my client information, my expiration dates, my hard earned customer information and $200 to boot. Hopefully they and Progressive too for that matter read this post and realize that some of us agents aren't going to stand by while the very companies that say they are here to help are helping to bring an end to our chosen profession.

And so your suggestion for us agents that don't have markets, Chamber Pro?

An MGA having a retail agency is not so uncommon:

This link,
<a href='http://www.intercontinentalinsurance.com' target='_blank'>Intercontinental Insurance</a>, used to work, but I guess someone changed it.

One of my office associates pointed something out --

<a href='http://web.archive.org/web/200402062020 ... rance.com/' target='_blank'>Intercontinental Insurance</a> is an archive of what was once available.

So I looked up the license, CA Lic# 0B93695 , on the CA DOI <a href='http://www.insurance.ca.gov/docs/FS-Licensestatus.htm' target='_blank'>website</a>. That license number is not held by Intercontinental Insurance, LLC. The only license for CA listed for them is: 0E24649 which is Fire/Casualty & not Life/Health. Is that legal?

By the way, the 0B93695 license is held by Superior Access. Interesting, no?

--Special thanks to Jim for the 'snooping'.

ON-LINE market access programs are a fantastic idea for agents who dont have direct appointments with national carriers. BUT if you are going to use an on-line aggregator dont you think you should get real-time quotes? I dont understand why you would complete an online application and wait 2, 3 or more days for a quote. Why not just fax the information to these guys.

InsuranceNoodle, Superior Access, Network Ins Agents, SIAA....NONE of these guys rate a policy real-time (I mean in minutes!). There is one company I've seen that does bring back multiple quotes in as fast at 10 minutes, AgentSecure.

If you have a chance take a look at their website at http://www.agentsecure.com. Their customer service is really good and they only work with agents!

Yes I looked into AgentSecure.com as well. They want you to pay the fee up front BEFORE they tell you if you qualify. They explicitly state that not everyone who applies will qualify. Then, if you don't qualify, they keep the fee.

I thought same thing but they qualify almost 97% of agents that apply. I found out if you call them they will tell you if you qualify and will give you a no obligation demo so you can decide if it works for your agency.

I still think real time rating is worth it!

Thanks I will try them!

Why dont you learn how to spell noodle first

InsuranceMaster, I forgot to mention that insurance noodle's delivery system for certificates of insurance is awesome. You just go to the clients account on the website, enter some info on the certholder etc and submit. Usually within minutes a certificate is sent to your email as an adobe attachment ready for printing or forwarding to your customer.

Rob

While not national yet, http://www.combinedgroup.com, allows you to get instant quotes, within 15 seconds, of Hartford, Travelers and others and at no cost.

I have heard that they will be going national in the very near future and all you have to do is sign up with them.

Seems better than paying AgentSecure for the access, or not getting service at SuperiorAccess, or paying and waiting days for quotes from InsuranceNoodle.

I guess there is no perfect company yet.

Besides the cost SIAA sounds like the best thing going. I read somewhere that the 9K could be financed, I meet with the rep next week, the do seem to have the highest commissions and you can work towards a direct contract. The other guys seem to be paying 5-10% where SIAA pays 15%, I think. I have been selling life, health, med supps, and ltc for 4 years now. And I'm still trying to figure out for people make a living in p&c. I know there is more quanty but still 10%... I pay my agents between 70-85% for life and 16-19% on med supps. So I guess it just doesn't add up to me yet......

chamberagent.com still shows AIG as their BOP market which is a problem since AIG withdrew from that line as of September 2004.

I just recently went with one of the wholesalers and to be truthful, I'm not impressed. I reviewed their appetite booklet and decided it looked good enough so I laid down my $$$$. Well, the first quote I tried was for an interior trim finishing carpentry. Up pops their possible offers but no GL or BOP is available in mt State. If I was in my adjourning State I could get GL or a BOP for this prospect. Then I try a caterer, same thing.... nothing in my State. Then I try PL for my Real Estate Appraiser... nothing in my State.

OK, so now I am wondering why I paid my $200? I guess you must be very, very specific when talking with the salespeople. You must get them to give more than their national appetite, you must get very State specific with their appetites. Their website has the banners of very good companies but if you can't access the products of those companies, the banners are nothing more than window dressings.

For $10,500 I could go with someone else and this could be put to rest. I just have a hard time with spending that kind of money for the ability to share commisson with someone. I guess the rule applies, he who owns the contracts writes the rules. I can only feel that it is strong arming money because they can. How else can they present it?

I can understand differing commission levels, with the more business you give them the higher the commission percentage. I can't understand a $10,500 up front number.

Oh well, thank goodness I have a good group health business.