New Season Kick-Off

You sometimes have to go backward a little before you can take two steps forward.

With the nation still reeling from the events of 2008 — the constricting economy, the housing and credit crises, the Wall Street bailout, natural catastrophes that generated $22 billion in insured damage, the meltdown of the world’s largest insurer AIG, and overall soft insurance market conditions — running an insurance business seems to be more and more challenging these days.

Understandably, property/casualty agents are a bit unsure about what is in store for 2009, and for the next four years under the new presidential regime. “Everything is in such turmoil right now with the financial markets that the crystal ball is a little cloudy at this point,” said Len Brevik, executive vice president of the Professional Insurance Agents, on his predictions for 2009.

Bob Rusbuldt, CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, predicted independent agents will fare better in 2009 than other entities in the financial services industry. “I think independent agents are going to shine in this economy because of the value they add, the professional advice and counsel they give to both businesses and personal lines consumers … things that become much more important in this type of economy we are living in,” he said.

As Rusbuldt suggested, a more prosperous new year hinges on an insurance agency’s ability to provide customers value. But an independent insurance agency can’t expect its employees to be jazzed about providing good customer service if they’re not enthusiastic about their work. On the other hand, if an agency builds a fantastic environment that agents consider a fun place to build a career, they’re more likely to be successful, loyal, and subsequently to improve the health and economics of the agency.

It’s admittedly easy to lose sight of the internal well-being of an organization. Many agencies are so busy trying to stop the losses from 2008 and cutting costs that it becomes difficult to think about investing in staff for future growth. One agent who responded to an Insurance Journal survey on predictions for 2009 lamented about writing twice as many policies to keep the same amount of premium on the books, given the increased competition in the industry’s soft market.

With that in mind, the editors at Insurance Journal aim to help hone that focus on personnel growth for you. This year, we plan to devote more pages to agency management advice, bringing applicable ideas to your fingertips. As an example, this issue of Insurance Journal kicks-off our focus on agency management articles with sound practices that cross-over from a different field: Winning high school football coach and former insurance brokerage chief operating officer Bill Redell shares management lessons that can be learned from the football field.

By and large, insurance agencies had a bad record in 2008. But as on the gridiron, you sometimes have to go backward a little before you can take two steps forward. We hope our devotion to your success gives you more resources to show your employees what you can do. After all, even when you’re winning the football game (or business is good), every smart quarterback knows that as long as there’s still time on the clock, you shouldn’t stop looking for new opportunities.

Topics Agencies