I Am Thinking About Becoming Allstate Agent

What are your thoughts? Curious to hear from one of their veteran agents.

Not thrilled about it but there is little I can do. I have shared my opinion and views with my TSM and others and they have all given me the corporate answer that this will in no way effect how your agency will run. They have also said that there are certain segments that want to deal direct...and that is what they are trying to grab more market share. And while I appreciate them not trying to do that with the allstate name like progressive tried to do...but wish they would just say we are not in the buy a "cheap" online policy. We will see what happens but it is what it is...guess I may start loading up a few more of my other carriers. Funny thing is I have talked to quite a few agents and none of them are happy so I wonder what kind of backlash they will get from the agency channel.

I have never seen a esurance policy that I couldn't tear to pieces either. I think either way Allstate overpaid... A billion dollars...
 
"In the auto unit, the decline in policyholders has come in part as the company has eliminated some of the smaller, newer insurance agencies that sell Allstate coverage and shifted attention to larger agencies where results have generally been better, Lacher said. Now, the company plans to retool its compensation to agents to reward them for bringing in more profitable customers and selling new coverage to existing ones.
"It will take from the weak and give to the strong," Lacher said. "We want agents who are bigger, stronger, [and] have the resources to provide the right value proposition to our customers."

- From today's WSJ article, Allstate is going to get rid of the small agencies and is not keeping it a secret.

2nd UPDATE: Allstate Aims To Improve Home, Auto Units By 2013 - WSJ.com
 
My agent is an IA and his dad is an Allstate agent. I'm actually feeling sorry about all the trash I've been talking about their restrictions (even though his dad bust my chops even more). They are having a hard time writing anything at all. Every lead is pretty much garbage. I think he has started to focus more on home and try to cross-sell auto to written home leads. He's been doing Allstate for about 28 years and I think has considered taking the Allstate book offer (I forgot what their term was) before they drop the amount since the books of business aren't selling in the market. We're having problems of our own in the IA market. The fraud is just out of control in Florida, but its still better than being captive.
 
Allstate "currently" offers you 1.5x your annual earned commission spread out over 12 months with a 1 year-1 mile non-compete clause. You can sell to an "approved" buyer for any amount you can negotiate. Allstate gets to approve all buyers so there is no guarantee your buyer will be approved.

There will be many agencies for sale by the end of the year as agents are led to slaughter by management or opt to jump ship before being forced out or decreased termination pay
 
Allstate is a great company with great benefits to the right candidate. If you are looking for a company that will hold your hand, tuck you in to bed at night, blow air on your boo boo, and tell you its okay to sell 3 policies a month than Allstate isn't the company for you. On the other hand if you are hungry, hard working, smart, and know how to align your goals with that of Allstates to get what you desire than Allstate is a great company and you will make a lot of money as an EA. Granted, Allstate is priced out of some markets so what state your in makes a big difference. However, this doesn't mean that i dont disagree with a lot of what Allstate does because I do in a MAJOR way. Example, the ALI is a dumb survey to say the least but then again i know that upper managment doesnt care what i think of it so what i do is instead of bickering, i use a triple dialer to call all of my clients one month before the survey and explain to them that the survey they are getting is solely based on my and my agencies performance, the result is a 70 score and higher. I have a proactive solution for all the monkey wrenches that Allstate send our way and the end result is my bank account is happy, im happy, and Allstate is happy. Bottom line, if you know how the system works and you can work within the system GO FOR IT.
 
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