Are licensed independent insurance agent required to have a physical agency location

rspradlin · 06-19-2008, 05:11 PM

Are licensed independent insurance agents with active appoinments required to have an physical agency location to sell for ins carriers

I'm a Florida 220 General Lines Licensed Agent with an Active Appoinment.

I'm seeking to offer a simpler way of shopping for auto insurance by providing the cheapest auto insurance quotes from top 15 insurance companies to consumers via my website.

The completion of the application will take less than five minutes. We will match the consumers application to all affiliated insurance companies. Then our system will show the lowest rates out of those fifteen for you. After you compare car insurance rates you will be given the option to purchase a low cost policy online.

I would like to get appointed with the following insurance companies: Progressive, GEICO, AIG, Arrowhead, Electric, Encompass, Esurance, The Hartford, Liberty Mutual, MetLife, Permanent General, Safeco, Travelers, and Unitrin. If required to do so to sell insurance for them.

By comparing rates from a broad list of companies we'll improve the consumers chances of purchasing the cheapest insurance.

Can anyone point me in the right direction on how is best to do this?

There are companies (i.e. netquote) which offer referrel fee's to companies that supply traffic to netquote like sites thru the companies web site.

I do plan on opening an actual agency with business physical location. Current by Florida law, I can obtain an Agency License being that part of my residence is used for commercial office and falls within their acceptable guidelines.

My ulitmate goal would be to set up a website storefront where consumers could complete an application and get several quotes instantly online with the ability to purchase their chosen policy.

This may be best to set up with an existing agency to that they can use their empolyee's and operations to service the policies and split commisions on the policies and renewals.

Any advice or ideas on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

Kindest regards!

moonlightandmargaritas · 06-19-2008, 05:14 PM

Nice sounding concept, but I don't think any of those companies will appoint you using that model.

rspradlin · 06-19-2008, 05:20 PM

If you don't mind and you get a chance, check out Compare Rates for Insurance Quotes and Save Money.

They seem to be doing a similar business model and I'm curious as to how they're able to represent the insurance carriers they've listed on their site.

Any idea's on how they're able to do so?

Thanks again!

moonlightandmargaritas · 06-19-2008, 08:07 PM

The site is "netquote".

They don't sell insurance, they sell insurance leads to agents.

rspradlin · 06-19-2008, 08:12 PM

I guess I should contact a local independent agent with multiple carriers and set up a quote site to send my leads directly to that agency and then work out a split commissions plan favorable to both parties. Being that I'm licensed I can share commissions with agents with the same license.

What is the average commissions (estimate) on an auto policy on a used vehicle?

Steve · 06-20-2008, 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by rspradlin

... What is the average commissions (estimate) on an auto policy on a used vehicle?

The percentage of commission won't change on new vs. used vehicles. the percentage will change with different insurance companies.

If your question was for a dollar amount, the answer is impossible. Make, model, year, age, sex, home address, distance to work, what the vehicle is used for, loss score rating, MVR history -- so many things to take into account for premium levels. They vary greatly.

Good luck. There's a ton of competition on the internet for quoting.

bobson · 06-23-2008, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by rspradlin

I'm seeking to offer a simpler way of shopping for auto insurance by providing the cheapest auto insurance quotes from top 15 insurance companies to consumers via my website.

The completion of the application will take less than five minutes. We will match the consumers application to all affiliated insurance companies. Then our system will show the lowest rates out of those fifteen for you. After you compare car insurance rates you will be given the option to purchase a low cost policy online.

I would like to get appointed with the following insurance companies: Progressive, GEICO, AIG, Arrowhead, Electric, Encompass, Esurance, The Hartford, Liberty Mutual, MetLife, Permanent General, Safeco, Travelers, and Unitrin. If required to do so to sell insurance for them.

At least you are enthusiastic!

I can write with a number of those companies and I guarentee you they won't just appoint you because you want to. Getting a P&C appointment is nothing like getting an appointment with Assurant.

You will never be able to develop a program that will allow a consumer to get rates from all of those companies in 5 minutes. The different information Safeco requires versus Travelers versus the Hartford is almost mind boggling. They seemingly all sell the same product but how they generate rates is very different.

It makes much more sense for a consumer to go see an independent agent, give them all the information they need and have the independent agent fill out all the forms and run the quotes. Even with programs like EZ Lynx, it takes more than 5 minutes to get all the specific information for the various companies.

In addition proftiability wise, you will not get much pull with a P&C company if you write one or two policies a month with them. Besides, most of them would cut you off after a few months of inacitivty anyway, even if you were to get an appointment.

If generating rates for consumers was the only job of a P&C agent you might have a chance to write with a few of those carriers. That is far from the only job of a P&C agent.

Good luck!

djs · 06-23-2008, 01:19 PM

I love your enthusiasm. Don't let what I'm about to say diminish that. There are obstacles to your business model, or everyone would do exactly what you are proposing. Some carriers do, such as progressive, but then, they don't need you.

Many of the carriers you are talking about will require that you inspect the risk you are insuring, i.e., you need to see the car before you insure it. You need to see the house before you insure it, etc. This lowers the risk to the carriers significantly. (not all require the inspection, most do).

Without a physical inspection, you probably will not have binding authority, i.e., you would have to submit the case to the carrier for approval, which means your business model doesn't work.

There are carriers that work this style model themselves. Obiously, e-surance with their quote buy print model does it. In that model though, an agent is overhead that they don't use.

All that said, 3 years ago I wanted to do exactly what you are suggesting. I couldn't find a way to make it work then, so I don't have much help in making it work now.

Dan

Soaringagent · 07-03-2008, 01:18 AM

I LOVE your enthusiasm. Try starting small with a few carriers and see how that goes. Maybe work with a GA first and see how it goes.

Keep up the good work and love your show.

rocketboy · 07-06-2008, 07:16 PM

What I am trying to figure out is if esurance can do it then why wouldn't others be able to follow suit.

I mean they offer insurance over the internet from several carriers and never see the car. They also offer it in 28 states currently.

djs · 07-07-2008, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by rocketboy

What I am trying to figure out is if esurance can do it then why wouldn't others be able to follow suit.

I mean they offer insurance over the internet from several carriers and never see the car. They also offer it in 28 states currently.

esurance is their own company, they can do whatever they want. Several online companies do this. They sort it out later if there is a dispute.

Truth is, you can almost always tell if the damage was caused by the accident the person is saying caused it, but it requires more work, and causes lots of adjuster headaches. The online companies have accounted for this.

This is also part of the reason buying P&C insurance online is usually more expensive than buying it from an agent. Heck, if I want to clinch a deal, I let the person price e-surance when he's in my office (rarely do this, but it's fun every once in a while).

Most carriers that you can get appointed with will want inspections. After a while, you realize this isn't a big deal. There is enough business within a 5 mile radius of your office to keep you busy for a lifetime.

Dan

insureagent · 08-31-2008, 06:54 PM

There is a lot of misinformation here on this site, but Ill tell you you can get the appts. And the rater has already been developed and can be had fairly inexpensivesly or expensively depending on whom you go thru. The tough part is gettting trafic to your site, and then second actually closing. Insurance.com is doing a decent job of it and now they are supplmenting their advertising with yellow page ads. They dont have as many companies as you mentioned but they have a few. A partener of mine and I have been toying with this for a couple of years, I think our biggest hold back is seeing the traffic to the site. Quote a bunch of companies, get the lowest rate, write it on line, in theory. In reality??? If you have ideas to drive the traffic, we got the appts, and the technology, let me know. We are here on the other side of the country so maybe we could simply divide the country in half and conquer it.!

lisar1208 · 09-01-2008, 08:07 AM

It has been my experience that most P&C carriers require a office location.

life911 · 09-03-2008, 04:46 PM

If you have an office location, what P&C carriers are good to work with (assuming you are independent)?

tiburon5253 · 09-04-2008, 12:20 AM

Originally Posted by insureagent

If you have ideas to drive the traffic, we got the appts, and the technology, let me know.

Driving traffic can be easy, and FREE, if you use the organic traffic approach. Article marketing, blog marketing, and social marketing can shove your site to the first couple pages of Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. Target the not-so-obvious search phrases and you can make the #1 spot on any of those search engines.