Insurance Agent Forum

[rmasmas]

I wonder whether folks on the forum could answer this question -- regardless of which carriers they work with now. I guess I am trying to get us to reassess together (with the anonymity the forum offers us) who we would choose to do business with now. Particularly for those of us who work in the independent agent/broker world, the carriers we name now would be informed by our experience over the longer-term but also by the chaos that the last year has thrown into the financial strength ratings and market capitalization (and capacity) of a lot of prop/cas carriers.

My gut reaction is that carriers unattached to a life or a financial services operation seem to have weathered the storm best -- although I recognize that this is a gross generalization.

So, which regional or national carriers (or types of carriers) would you want to be working with over the next 3-5 years for:

1. personal lines business - mainstream
2. personal lines business - "tough", specialty or potential E&S risks
3. personal lines business - rich folks
4. BOP business - mainstream
5. BOP business - "tough", specialty or potential E&S markets
6. bigger than BOP but not Fortune 1000 - mainstream
7. bigger than BOP but not Fortune 1000 - "tough", specialty or potential E&S markets
8. Fortune 1000

I am just as interested in the reasons why we might name the carriers we do. I have been talking to a few carriers recently about starting to work with them, but I am concerned about carriers' long-term commitment to markets and even more concerned about carrier viability -- regardless of whether the various rating agencies still have them in the A categories.

I also remember that some carriers with top-notch financial strength ratings also had well-deserved really bad reputations when it came time to pay claims.

I've also heard carriers pitching about how much they want to write BOP-able or smaller mid-market business, but they then make it really hard to handle these smaller accounts efficiently.

I'll shut up now. I hope that this thread is worthwhile.