United Independent Wholesale Insurance Network (UandIWin)

[Guest]

And FWIW, I am not a rookie in this business. I have more experience in the insurance industry than Sti & John Pet & James combined.

I was really addressing 'shep' as he was the OP of this thread and was the one I thought was asking for advice.

As for an experienced guy like yourself, what does UandI bring to the table? If you want to recruit and be a sales manager why not do it through either your own agency or with a large carrier's local office. Probably the only thing harder to find than good agents are good managers!

Al

 

[STIBROKER]

those who can't do.....teach......

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

What they can offer that you can't get on your own is simply more money. Imagine an Assurant GA who's belting out production and has a 30% contract. That GA cannot pay commission of more than 20% to any agent, but what's stopping him from offering and extra 8% in the way of bonuses? So now a writing agent is making 28% and doesn't have the hassles of managing other agents.

So the GA or MGA wins since he's stroking 2% where he wasn't stoking anything before and the producer wins becauce he's grossing 28% after commission and bonuses.

The problem is those bonuses are "at will" and that arrangement is subject to change whenever the mood hits the GA or MGA.

I was offered this deal at the Time Conference. A GA with a 30% deal wanted me to go under him as a writing agent and in return he'd give me 20% commission company direct right from Time then stroke me a 8% check for a bonus. He gets 2% so if I'm writing $10,000 a week he's now hAs $200 a week of found money. But that's actually not the point. The point is he now doesn't have to sweat the mill in production he needs each year to keep that level of contract.

And THAT'S why MGAs are doing this - they'll offer any deal to anyone just to get you under them so they don't have to worry about falling short of production requirements.

For me it wasn't worth the extra 3% to give up my direct GA contract.

 

[Bob_The_Insurance_Guy]

Al3, thank you for the post. I agree 100% with you. I have only been in the business for 10 years, but I had a mentor (my insurance agent), who steered me clear of these types of scams.

There's an old adage: The easiest person to sell is a salesman.

Rather than wasting time with something like this, I would recommend partering up with some experienced agents, and let them guide you to what you want. A good agent, who is comfortable with their station in life, would be more than willing to take you under their wing, split cases with you, provide you leads, etc.

Flash and fluff is for someone who is an insurance agent this year, then they go into real estate in a few years, then you find them in the advertising industry, then they land in the "wealth management" industry, then they become a "business consultant".

I feel sorry for these people, but I will not follow them.

 

[somarco]

what does UandI bring to the table? If you want to recruit and be a sales manager why not do it through either your own agency or with a large carrier's local office

MGA's & IMO's lose agents all the time.

Earlier this year I approached the IMO where I was writing (some) Time business and asked what would be required to move to a higher contract. I was told they only give out higher contracts to agents who have sub-agents under them already . . . or they will discuss it once I have $250,000 on the books.

The RSD made me a better offer so I switched.

Last year the same thing happened with World. I switched IMO's and went from a 20% contract to a 24% contract without promising anything in the way of increased production.

The year before that I switched GA's under CGI.

Each time I changed I got a better deal.

Sub-agents in the UandIwin dont have the incentive to go anywhere as long as the bonuses are flowing.

The incentive to me is this.

I can sustain myself on my own production and keep my current contracts. I can recruit and train agents under my existing contracts, handle all the accounting & tracking of their commission vs my override. I can continue to pay sub-agents as long as they are licensed even if they no longer produce new business. If I forget to check to see if an agent is licensed, and I pay them a commission, I could be in trouble. Sub-agents have to be reported to my E&O carrier, which raises my premium, and exposes me to more personal liability. Any advances that are not repaid by sub-agents are charged back to me.

With UandIwin I keep my contracts. I recruit & train but am not responsible for any of the accounting for commissions, licensing, overrides, 1099's or anything else. I do not report agents in my downline to my E&O carrier because they are contracted directly with the carrier via UandIwin. There are no chargebacks to me, no liabililty for actions of agents in my downline.

If I do it right and treat this as a part-time job I can have a revenue stream that is non-existent now and no hassle. If I do nothing, I make nothing. If the agents I recruit do nothing, I make nothing.

A few years ago 100% of my income was residual & overrides. I played golf 3 days a week and traveled all over the south entertaining my clients. There was very little effort on my part yet my monthly override checks far exceeded $10,000.

Then all of that crashed & burned in a very short time. It took me quite some time to recover. I wont ever again be trapped by overrides and little to no personal production. It was fun while it lasted. This is an opportunity to get my golf game back on track.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Somarco, we seem to be in the exact same place. I used to heavily count on overrides until four of my top agents blew out and got their own GA deals. The problem with this industry is that for obvious reasons agent who produce huge amounts of business will always be looking for the absolute highest commission available. I got killed and had to quickly ramp up personal business.

That will never happen again and if you actually want to live off overrides it's "turn it and burn it." You'll always be replacing people - which is apparantely what UandIWin are trying to solve. I still don't fully understand the concept yet.

Here's the truth: At 25% I can easily write $10,000 for the week and make $2,500. That's a no-brainer.

Now try to replace that with 5% overrides and realize that the average agent places $4,000 a week on average. That I need about 13 agents all writing business to replace what I can crank out myself. Now - that's 13 agents all actually writing business. We won't get into how many you have to hire and train and end up with 13 who are consistently writing.

This is why my goal for next year is to personally ramp up to $20,000/$30,000 a week in personal production.

Also realize that a lot of GAs who are in the MGA system blow out to go under RSDs since you're not company direct under a MGA. That means if support is lacking you can get killed in underwriting. Busy MGAs don't have time to put your cases in for review if there's a bad decision so you eat it. Under the RSD system you're TPC member and have dedicated underwriting - which is priceless. I get about 25% of my decisions overturned. Let me re-phrase that, if I get 10 decisions I'll only fight about 2 of them. But out of the decisions I fight almost all get a better offer. Nice to pick up the phone and call the head underwriter directly - which GAs under MGAs cannot do.

I hear a LOT of complaints from GAs under MGAs about horrible support - calls not returned in a timely manner, next to zero training and horrible underwriting. I'm quite happy under the RSD system with being company direct.

 

[somarco]

The problem with this industry is that for obvious reasons agent who produce huge amounts of business will always be looking for the absolute highest commission available

As best I can tell, the UandIwin set up does away with this. Your bonus is tied to UandIwin. Leave, and you can take your personal business with you but the overrides stay behind.

That means if support is lacking you can get killed in underwriting. Busy MGAs don't have time to put your cases in for review if there's a bad decision so you eat it

That was part of my problem with Time. My GA had agents all over the country and only had time for the big fish. Everyone else got the hind tit.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Direct contact with my underwriter is priceless and I'd never give it up. I got two commissions - both over $1,000 just this month alone by calling my dedicated underwriter and having decisions reversed. One was a 60% rating for anxiety that I got down to 15%. Another was a rider and drug card rating where the rider was removed and the rating lowered. Neither one of those clients would have accepted the original decision. Those total commissions were $2,600. Now you see why going under a MGA and getting an extra 3% isn't worth it for me.

 

[dsugar]

Wish i could read Insurance lingo!

I want to go to work for John for a year to learn.

 

[dvd493]

Re: Wish i could read Insurance lingo!

I want to go to work for John for a year to learn.

Ask him, he's incredibly helpful. I'll bet he'll let you.