GENERAL AGENTS who forget to pay commissions or pay late

[BrooklynNY]

How do you keep track of commissions due to you from the general agents you deal with?

A general agent I deal with forgets to pay me my commissions and when I discover it, only pays after many calls and written requests.
If anybody out there has any suggestions on how can I track my commissions, calculate amounts due to me and get paid in a timely manner. please post a reply. Thank you.

[sanddog]

Get rid of them, posts and email under and assumed name let us know who it is, spread the word. That's Bad.........

[gregcw]

I am assuming that you are talking about renewal commissions. The G/A should be sending you copies of there renewal offers and confirmation of renewals. If you have a management system I would post an activity for the customer file to check the next statement from the G/A.

Most of the G/A's I work with are agency billed. at the renewal all we need to do is remit the 'NET' premium and retain our commission. You might approach the G/A about remitting net premium. for me this problem only occurs with premiums that are financed by the G/A. Then we have to track them and we do use the activity function of the management aystem.

GCW

[jtabosida]

We too receive the down payments or premiums in full made payable to our company. We then in turn send the carrier, MGA, etc the premium within their specified window. Regardless though you should know what your commissions are.......... i'm a bit confused there. More MGA are going that to keep accounting costs lower on their side.

[R&M]

An agency management system will take care of this problem for you, or if you have Quickbooks Pro Edition you can set up accounts in the item list which will help track owed commissions. If you are a manual operation without computer assisted tracking of commissions, you can track commissions owed by creating 12 folders that represent each month. When a piece of business is written or renewed in any given month, simply drop a sticky of the amount paid up front, gross commission due you etc. At the end of February, for example, you would account for the January folder until all items have been paid. If you are fairly small this will work quite well, however if you have a decent size book this could be more work than just paying for a management system. Management systems range in price from $175 to $750 per month depending on who you go with.
I hope this helps.
Steve

[Nice Surplus Lines Broker]

You are receiving the royal run around. Sorry to hear it. You should not have to beg for your commission. The GA is treating you miserably.

We have a philosophy - money in (that's not ours), money out (that day or the next).

Brokers work hard enough without having to hassle for their commissions.

I suggest you find another market or call the President of the Company and express your displeasure.

[RKunz2]

Dear BrooklynNY,

First of all, I'm not in your industry (yet). I'm on the collections side.

I've got experience in this playing field, collecting against GA's and brokers for various breaches. Let me tell you this - GET AWAY FROM THESE GUYS - FAST! Bad news, you probably have less than a 1 in 20 chance that they're simply "forgetting" to pay you. More likely, this GA is floating the money, co-mingling, or just flat out using it to buy RV's, boats or whatever for their personal use.

Everyone is right, you shouldn't have to beg for your earnings. Dump those guys, it's a H U G E RED FLAG what they're doing to you.

Best of luck!

[dev1nsan]

Ive had been having the same problem for the past three months and I'm pretty fed up with having to call them and ask for my commission. They always give me the same excuse too. I figured oh well I'll just stop writing business for them and just use them if I have to in order to sell a policy but now it seems like it's not even worth that.

[mhutch69]

As stated in other responses, general agencies do NOT forget to pay commissions. Automation causes properly issued submissions to be paid each term without fail. If any market is not paying commissions for properly submitted business, I would give the market one opportunity to explain the error and remit all earned commissions. The second occurrence would include an immediate demand to the actual insurance carrier, with a copy to the g.a. The insurance company is ultimately responsible for the payment of producer commissions. Last effort would be to utlilize your local Department of Insurance via a complaint against the carrier. I have never done business with a general agent and had this type of problem, but operating in the retail insurance marketplace is difficult enough with reduced commissions and increased daily workflows which have migrated to the retail level. Contact the owner of the g.a. and you will probably find a producer code error... Reconciling each and every personal lines policy for as earned commissions, either via a management system or manually, is not terribly feasible for non-retentive business.