Starting from Scratch: Indepedent or Captive

littleDubya

New Member
2
I have been perusing this site for information on how to get an insurance business going. I found loads upon loads of information here and it has been enlightening.

I am in the process of obtaining my Property&Casualty and Life&Health licenses in California and want to have my own insurance business. I have learned in the last few days from this forum there is a lot of work involved.

I want go the Independent route and from one of threads I have learned the hardest two requirements to meet are obtaining E&O and appointments with carriers. I do not have experience in insurance or a book of business or a prospects list to offer the carriers. But I still want to try so please advise how can I obtain E&O and which carriers are willing work with Newbies. I look forward to starting with a few simple products such as auto, home, and life.

I also looked into Allstate, State Farm, Mercury, Progressive and Farmers for the Captive option. Again from this site I have learned they all have their requirements and drawbacks. If I have to go Captive, but I hope I don't, which is the best choice.
 
I have been perusing this site for information on how to get an insurance business going. I found loads upon loads of information here and it has been enlightening.

I am in the process of obtaining my Property&Casualty and Life&Health licenses in California and want to have my own insurance business. I have learned in the last few days from this forum there is a lot of work involved.

I want go the Independent route and from one of threads I have learned the hardest two requirements to meet are obtaining E&O and appointments with carriers. I do not have experience in insurance or a book of business or a prospects list to offer the carriers. But I still want to try so please advise how can I obtain E&O and which carriers are willing work with Newbies. I look forward to starting with a few simple products such as auto, home, and life.

I also looked into Allstate, State Farm, Mercury, Progressive and Farmers for the Captive option. Again from this site I have learned they all have their requirements and drawbacks. If I have to go Captive, but I hope I don't, which is the best choice.

If I've never looked under the hood of a car how could I open up a mechanic shop?

The hardest part is not finding E&O or getting appointed with a carrier, it's finding prospects to make sales to.

This is not a line of business that you just jump into and open up an agency.
 
If I've never looked under the hood of a car how could I open up a mechanic shop?

The hardest part is not finding E&O or getting appointed with a carrier, it's finding prospects to make sales to.

This is not a line of business that you just jump into and open up an agency.

Winateexpress is right. The thing you need the most is experience. I think it is a bad idea to start and agency without at least 3 years experience. However, here is a site with a lot of useful information on the subject:

https://www.agencyequity.com/
 
Thank you all for the advice. I also believe it not a good idea to dive in head first to open an Indy agency without experience. After looking into being a captive agent and discovering the difficulty of gaining acceptance with the exception one particular carrier(I quote myself and I can't buy from them) who seems to be always hiring, I decided if I have to go solo without all the captive carrier's support then that is the way it is going to be. Also do not have the up front liquid capital say Allstate requires so this limits the option available.

Looking through the site at the moment and trying to find out if joining a cluster is the way to go. Thanks.
 
I started a Farmers Scratch agency 5 years ago with no experience. I have 3400 Policies now and throwing myself into the deep end vs working for "the man" to gain experience is what was best for me.

I chose captive because I didn't know any better, perhaps this is where the experience helps out since if I had to do it over again I would of chose independent side, but catch 22 is without experience you have to start with non standard carriers that are harder to capture preferred clientele. Although I could sell my agency for a million dollars in 5 years and just start a independent from scratch. Many ways to skin a cat… Good luck!
 
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