Can anybody make a decent living in personal lines? I sure don't see how.
Yes, you can. If you have good markets, and are in a good area you can make great money. We are in South Orange County, California. Everyone here has expensive cars and big homes. Selling a package policy here is almost equal to selling a commercial policy. Also, when these clients shop for insurance they don't go to Geico or Progressive. They look for someone who knows what they are taking about. That is where we come in.
I also have a niche contractor class of business...and we run into this problem every single day!
Good news is that our clients are with us due to our expertise on their industry and when we see something wrong we tell them. Typically I will say..."you buy insurance to be certain that you will have financial repair should something happen...why do you want to take a chance on the auto coverage? Especially when this is the area you actually have the greatest exposure and least amount of protection against? Meaning: You have opportuntity to "interact" with thousands of vehicles on a typical day. No matter how good of a driver you are...there are those thousands that might not be as good of drivers as you...
Personal lines is too high maintenance, certainly not worth all the work for such little payout. I worked in PL for 18 yrs. Now CL. I'm not a producer, but know how the clients are; PL=fickle, less educated than commercial lines clients so it takes much longer to build trust. PL is very hard to get and retain business. At least in Western NY - so competitive, you kill yourself quoting everyone due to the customer demands. And, yes, it's PAP (not PIP). PIP is major coverage in NY auto; took me a second to figure out what you meant by PIP. You need to get a mix PL and CL. Our agency is very heavy in CL. The PL we write, is the Pers lines fFROM THE COMMERCIAL owner, family and employees.
