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I have always wondered how / why Erie insurance stays so competitive low on premiums. I was talking with an accountant at one of my bigger clients and she said they may be getting a quote from Erie for their commercial ins.

Well I don't have access to Erie and that...oh no I'm gonna lose this one, come to mind.

What is it about Erie?

I don't even know who they are

Probably because many that read the forum seem to be in the western part of the country. Erie writes in 12 (or 14) States and is something like the 14th largest. Erie began in 1928 and they are consistantly the low premium. JD Powers gives them a thumbs up.

Perhaps they save a hefty sum on the upper managment pay...I do not know.

InsAgentSF wrote:I don't even know who they are

Most of my insurance career, if it was known that Erie was quoting on a commercial account, you could pretty much figure you were gonna lose it. I actually worked a few years ago for an Erie agent. Erie is very selective about the type of business it will write and on those select classes they only write the very very best. The loss history has to be basically perfect, the loss control the same. On the personal insurance side, their HO rates are unbelievable. If a homeowner called my office for a renwal quote, or quote on a new home purchase, if the prior history was clean, again, no one could beat them. We knew if we could quote the business, we could write it. I'm not exactly sure how they do it except they very rarely write the higher risk classes of business although I do know they write street & road. I have heard in recent years that they have changed their acceptable classes and removed some of the higher risks such as excavators. In the last two years, I have actually beat them out on some classes and took business from them, only to find out, it was a class they really didn't want anymore so they more or less "price themselves" out. Erie is a good company, their claims service is excellent. I really believe it is because they are very very picky about the risk they write and will not hesitate to non-renew an account whose losses are trending downward. Maybe their "selective" attitude combined with the "jump ship" attitude is how they do it.