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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 Independent Agents need to be successful Don't Pee on Me and Tell Me It's Raining! Is Ignoring the Law Fraud?Tough times never last. Tough people do Why Be A GIAA Member?RELATED ARTICLES
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What Independent Agents need to be successful
by
Dean Auten
This is my 2nd article on "Power To
Agents". With this article I will list what I feel Independent
Agents will need in the future to be successful auto insurance agents.1. First are contracts and / or legislation that gives agents protection against unwarranted agency cancellations. I’m always concerned when I say “unwarranted agency cancellations” -- possibly a better word would be “unnecessary agency cancellations”. Two years ago a company stopped one of my agencies from writing new business-- one year later loss ratio had improved and they let agency start again. I looked at the loss ratio this week and it is 34%--I do not get upset when a company puts us in a no new business situation -- I do get upset when they cancel us and then HB1268 sends the business to my competitor. I am in favor of GIAA taking a position in favor of rate relief for insurance companies. Some are considering leaving the State if they do not get relief. I hope that Commissioner John Oxendine will look more favorably toward company requests for needed rate relief 2001/2002 than he has the last two years. GIAA, PIA and IIAG could do a lot to help our companies by working, not only with Commissioner Oxendine, but Consumers’ Insurance Advocate, Cathy Steinberg -- I’m not sure Cathy Steinberg would object to granting needed rate relief. At Jekyll July 20-21 (GIAA’s Conference of Champions), I will be asking GIAA to take a position in support of HR26 (Establishes a rate regulation Study committee) and SB178 (petition for hearing if turned down). If you have followed my legislative efforts you know I have been working for fairness in legislation. After some unfavorable legislation affecting ownership of an agent's business in 1978 (Intent of legislation was to stop the unwarranted cancellations of insureds by companies but it also had a loophole in that it did not keep company from unwarranted (unnecessary?) cancellation of their agents), I and a small group of agents have tried to create enough interest in legislation to help consumers and agents. Most of the 13 years I have had the issue on the "Back Burner". Put on back burner so I could help my wife support our family. I'm not trying to absolve myself of the work (I want to do better) but the few agents that have been working on the legislation could sure use some help. GIAA has made the legislation for 2002 their #1 goal. If you are interested in helping, please send me E-MAIL at auten@compuserve.com If you want more information and/or a copy of the legislation, send an e-mail to me or better yet, please make plans to attend the “Chairman’s Breakfast” at GIAA’s Annual Conference of Champions. Senate Insurance and Labor Committee Chairman Robert Brown and House of Representatives Insurance Committee Chairman Jimmy Lord will be speaking (& listening) to you about the 2002 Legislative Session. 2. Second - Without #1, I'm not sure it does any good to have number two. Agents need to know that if they spend the money and time to develop a book of business for a company, the company will allow them to enjoy the fruits of their labor (Renewals!). Independent agents need to be a part of company's alternative marketing plans. This one independent agent doesn't even care if the companies (companies I represent) compete with me (write business direct) as long as they give me the tools to compete with them. Companies make the rules and agents should be asking how they can have rules for agents that they don't impose on themselves. Do they just want to keep out competition for the Direct Business? Afraid of their own agents? Not in the company's best long-term interest? One would think a company would see helping their agents do business 24/7 would help a company truly compete with GEICO, State Farm, Etc. When they don't, we should ask them where they expect to be 10 years from now. What percentage of Direct Vs Independent Agent business do they want in 10 years? Will their current independent agent partners (partners?) still be their partners in 10 years? Do they plan a future with more employee agents and less independent agents? Tell us your long term plan so we can decide now what would be in our best interests. This is not to be considered negative because there are a lot of agents that would prefer the employee status. I just don't happen to be one of them. 3. Selling and servicing business 24/7. With the tools we can offer 24/7 without having to keep our offices open 24/7 (see “Power to Agents” April 2001 FYI). 4. Sell more than auto insurance. To sell “More than Insurance”. More than the lowest rate and being able to justify charging more. When I changed our agency slogan from “Service First” to "More Than Insurance" little did I realize that my future as an Independent Insurance Agent may depend on what I have to offer “More Than insurance”. With auto insurance, how much more than a low rate makes a difference? 5. Become proactive in the effort to get fairness for what I call “non direct agents”. Agents that have offices and personnel open to the public. The definition I give includes agents of State Farm, Nationwide and Allstate. We need them and they need us. Next month, I’ll explain how I feel about most of the companies explanations on how their direct marketing is good for us. I call it “Don’t Pee On Me and Tell Me It’s Raining!” (Pardon my French, but if you read my article in the April FYI, you know that I just got back from Paris.) Dean Auten [top of page] |
