Insurance Journal Forums

Hello all,

I posted yesterday regarding some questions I had as a newbie to the agency side of the insurance arena. Now, during my research, I have come up with a few more and am hopeful that I will get some of the same great feedback I got yesterday. In researching today, I am having difficulty finding out exactly how to go about getting appointed by companies to write. I have found a company called Accord that has agreements with many companies to write business. Is anyone aware of any other companies that I could check out similar to this? I have also researched a company called Brighway Insurance which does franchising. If anyone is aware of anything smiliar to this, that would be great as well.

Thank you for your help!

Kent

Kent, I have some bad news for you. Acord is not an Insurance Company, rather they are a Company that provides standard insurance applications that has most, if not all of the information Companies need to provide a quote. You will become very familiar with the Acord applications in the years to come.
Now, to the point of obtaining appointments. When I started my Agency 10 years ago, I simply called the Insurance Company that I was interested in, asked for the Marketing Dept., spoke to someone in that Department and told them of my situation and that I was interested in writing insurance for them. In some cases, they gave the appointment right away. In other cases, they asked for much information and it took a few months to be approved. And, in some other cases, they declined to offer an appointment due to the fact that I could not promise to write a certain amount each year, or just because I was a newbie. So, just get on the telephone and start talking to marketing Reps.
One final thought is that it may be to your advantage to join a "cluster" of Agencies that secure appointments from many Companies that you will have access to (NIA in CA, Insurance Noodle, etc.)
Good luck!

Just read your other posting on this site regarding your experience. As an Underwriter, did you never see an Acord application?

We dont process paper applications here at my current position or use Accord for any of our applications. Our apps come over they system electronically. I spoke to a guy yesterday from Accord and yes, I understand they provide standard applications. The guy I spoke to stated that they also get appointments from companies and work to set up independents with those appointments. Generally speaking, the guy said for a small monthly fee, they will get you an initial 8-10 appointments.

ANother suggestion is to investigate Wholesalers you can do business with. There are some that provide "Retail" markets on a wholesale level. Concentrate on placing business with that wholesaler and more specifically, one or two carriers. When you have a large enough book, follow the other posts and contact the marketing rep from that carrier.

Where are you located? I may be able to point oyu in the right direction.

Also if you know what type of business you are wanting to write you maybe ableto find a wholesaler who has a niche product that will appoint you specifically to chase that line of business. Any idea what types you will be focusing on?