Broker Selection Process

[scott]

As a consultant I often assist insurance buyers with the broker selection process.

Example, a business with 350 employees pays $450,000 for their property and casualty insurance. They have worked with the same agent for 15 years and are not unhappy with the service they are getting. The client decides that a bid process is not the right approach. Rather, we want to make the decision on who we will work with based on the agent's abilities, services, approach, and experience. The successful agent / broker will be given complete access to the market (including broker of record to current carriers) at the approaching renewal.

I'm interested in comments from the forum's rank, file, and rabble on the broker selection process. From your perspective, what has worked? What has not? What did you like and what did you feel hurt your chances? What makes for a fair process? What happened that you thought was unfair?

I'd like to hear about your success stories and the horror stories.