Life Insurance for a P&C Agency

indypendent

New Member
15
I'm not one to post often but I do enjoy reading these forums and find them, well, enlightening at times. :twitchy: I started my own agency two years ago and did that as a side job selling crop and P&C. On Jan 1 took over ownership of a much larger P&C agency with a full time staff in a nearby community. As an Auto Owners agency, we are always encouraged to write life with them. Pekin was the same way but they canceled the agency's contract just as I was coming in because we were $10k below where they wanted us. Once I'm done with the Pekin book roll, I need and want to do a better job of marketing life products. We are in a small, rural, agricultural area. I guess the point of this post is 1) for you Auto Owners agents, how competitive are their life products? 2) should I have a second source for life products? 3) If yes to #2, who would be a good partner for this? I do not want to meet quotas or be harrassed by anyone for life production. P&C is our bread and butter...I'm just looking to add some gravy/dessert and to be able to offer my clients what they need. I have used Marketshare Financial before but I would really like to be able to do my quotes in house so that they can be prepared and revised as needed while the client is sitting in my office, just like they can be with Auto Owners.

Thanks for any help.
 
I second Brokers Alliance but I do have a few questions/comments concerning Auto Owners Life. First of all what I have seen of their term life it is "good enough" to sell but not competitive with the power term writers. Their whole life is decent. They also have ways to combine life and PC business to get a discount on the entire account. Based on my past experience I would look at the effectiveness of selling AO life in combination with their home and auto to see if the discount afforded the shared lines would justify the higher premiums AO will have on the life. Example. I used to sell a five year quick issue term with auto owners that would cost very little but it would save the customer more on the entire account than it costs. It was a win win even though the product was almost worthless from a coverage amount standpoint. You have to be creative and do research.

Banner Life, TransAmerica, Genworth, Protective are all untouchable in a head to head term insurance price war.

Hope this helps.

If you are adventurous look at ezlife sales. You could do it all without even meeting the customers.
 
I write a lot of life insurance for my company, and we are not very competitive when it comes to premium. However, it has been my experience that life insurance is different from p&c in that it is not bought- it is sold. In other words, life insurance needs are identified by the agent, and I have hardly ever have someone that I already have their P&C business shop the life insurance rate.
 
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