|
GIAA Goals
GIAA
says "Agents First!"
GIAA
Board of Directors
Discounted
On-Line CE
POWER
TO AGENTS
A collection of articles from Dean
Auten, owner of Auten Insurance Services of Brunswick, GA, former
Georgia Legislator, Legislative Liaison of Georgia Insurance Agents Alliance,
recipient of Insurance Expo 2003 "VIP" (Valuable Insurance Person)
Award and a great American!
Why
I am against Credit Scoring
What
Rights?
Call
"800 WHO CARES
Hang
In There!
What
Independent Agents need to be successful
Don't
Pee on Me and Tell Me It's Raining!
Commission
Reductions
Cream
of the Crap
Cry
Babies?
Tough
times never last. Tough people do
RELATED
ARTICLES
Unite
In Strength
NAAA
Introduces Model Contract
|
|
This
page sponsored by ... |
|
HANG IN THERE!
by
Dean Auten
Hang in there! Help is on it's way!
If
you are like me and a lot of my specialty agent friends who have shared their
experience, since September 1,2001 auto insurance business is down 30% or more.
In checking our business I found 40% cancellation in December 2001.
December 2001 became our worst month in three (3) years. It has been
like there has been full page ads with "Georgia auto insurance no
longer required". People just stopped paying their premiums!
In addition, it appears the police stopped enforcement. Before 09-11-01 we
would get 3 to 5 calls a week from police verifying insurance. For the
last few months we have received no calls. When they were calling the
percentage of those who told the police they had insurance with us but did
not was 100%.
In December 2001 we had an accident in Brunswick where an uninsured driver
(an uninsured vehicle driven by an uninsured driver) hit five (5) parked
cars. Two of the five parked cars had no insurance. In that accident we
had six cars and three without insurance. That rate is 50% uninsured! In
addition to the financial losses caused by uninsured vehicles/drivers,
there is a large tax loss to our cities/counties/state. If my estimate of
uninsured in our county is correct (10,000), it means a loss of premium
taxes to my county of $150,000 and the state of Georgia $135,000. The
state gets 2.25%.
Watch out, Commissioner Oxendine, the legislators may need to take more of
your operational income! Help is on the way!
When the 2002 legislative session started I was afraid they would repeal
SB 69.
Fortunately they only extended it's inception date to February 1,2003.
That is the best news we have had. Chairman Lord put in HB 992 to stop the
companies from lowering commission without prior approval. The bill may
not pass but the bill did get the companies’ attention. Thank you,
Chairman Jimmy Lord!
One big disappointment is the rate modernization legislation. It being an
election year, the legislature did not want to handle that hot potato.
Please - please Commissioner Oxendine, help our companies stay in business
and stay in Georgia. Maybe next year we can get the legislature to
consider open rating.
Representative Jay Shaw said he wanted some hearings this year. I
believe we will see an increase in business in the last quarter of 2002
and I believe 2003 could be one the best years we have had in the last
five.
HANG IN THERE!
[top of
page] |