Agents & Brokers News

Workers’ Comp Market Injured But Still Standing

Like the economy, the workers’ compensation market has suffered in recent years. Results for 2011 were no better than 2010. The good news: results for the workers’ comp market were not worse either. The combined ratio held steady at 115 …

8 Things Independent Agents Can Learn From Sam Walton

Wal-Mart and independent agencies seemingly have little in common. Not so. There are many helpful ideas to cull from Mr. Walton’s amazing odyssey from one store to the largest retailer in the world — as revealed in his autobiography, “Sam …

Florida Agent Association Tops 2,000 Members

The Florida Association of Insurance Agents, which represents thousands of independent agents statewide, has topped more than 2,000 agencies for the first time in its history. FAIA’s growth comes despite Florida’s difficult insurance market and in a time when many …

11 States Adopt Plan to Distribute Surplus Lines Premium Taxes

States participating in the Non-admitted Insurance Multi-state Agreement, or NIMA, have adopted a premium allocation method for distributing surplus lines premium taxes on casualty insurance. The adopted method aims to streamlines the allocation and distribution process of surplus lines premium …

General Ledger Accounting for P/C Agencies

In current practice insurance premium accounting is based on general ledger (GL) accounting. It is used by all agency management software applications: AMS, Applied Systems, etc., just to name a few. Developed more than 500 years ago, GL accounting has …

How Young Insurance Agents Are Changing the Industry

There’s a change happening — a big change. And some say young independent insurance agents are the catalyst for that change. They may even be leading a revolution, of sorts, says one young agent leader. Jason D. Cass, owner of …

The Language of Sales

Much of life is a sales process. At some point in every relationship we are, in effect, negotiating, selling and buying ideas. Communication is not an exact science. When we communicate, we use our words, in our own style to …

Submit Today: Top 100 Independent Insurance Agencies

Once again, Insurance Journal is on the search for leading privately-held property casualty independent agencies and brokerages for its annual Top 100 Property/Casualty Independent Insurance Agencies report. Top Overall Independent Agencies, Top Commercial Lines Independent Agencies, Top Personal Lines Independent …

CRC, Crump, R-T Specialty Reach Confidential Settlement Agreement

On May 4, 2012, CRC Insurance Services Inc., Crump Insurance Services Inc., and R-T Specialty LLC jointly announced that the three parties resolved all existing disputes between them. All three organizations said the conflicts were resolved in a global, confidential …

Survey: Agencies Seek Carrier Help to Expand into New Niches

The challenges of today’s economy appear to be driving some independent agents into new niche insurance markets and product lines. Almost 60 percent of independent agents say they have begun to or plan to expand into new business lines, according …