Am I the Catch I Think I Am?

Alston

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1000 Post Club
I am looking for an opportunity to sell P&C through another agency and still maintain some independence.

I would like opinions on how marketable I might be to an independent agency that focuses on P&C. I want to be able to continue to maintain my non P&C book through my own agency and want to walk away with my P&C book eventually. (I'm willing to buy my P&C book at the end of my tenure.)

I've put most of my eggs in the individual health insurance basket. That basket fell. In Connecticut insurers will neither pay commissions nor renewals on subsidized business for 2017, nor on any business written after the Open Enrollment Period.

I am losing a lot of revenue, but am still working hard servicing clients during the OEP to maintain those relationships. I have about 1,000 active or recently active clients.

On the positive side:

I have a marketing plan and marketing collateral that have worked for the individual health and MA/Med Supp markets. I believe that I can modify what I have for other insurance markets.

I know how to generate leads both on and off the Internet.

I know how to sell.

I've been an agent for 31 years and have no dings on my license and no E&O claims.

I already have a P&C license.

I have hundreds of clients who pick up the phone when they see my company name on their caller ID. I believe that most of them will let me quote their auto and homeowners. (And there is no non compete clause to stop me from doing so.)

I have enough capital to make the transition.

On the negative side:

I sold P&C in the late 80s for about 4 years, but have no recent experience.

I know a lot of stuff and I can learn more, but I learn more slowly than I did twenty years ago.

I'm sure I have other negatives that I don't have the perspective to see.

Your Opinion?

If I walked into your office and told you my story,would you leap at the chance to make a deal with me or would you roll your eyes and show me the door?

What kind of a deal am I likely to get, if any?

Where should I look?

What would make someone in my situation more marketable?

What questions should I ask the person on the other side of the table?
 
I am looking for an opportunity to sell P&C through another agency and still maintain some independence.

I would like opinions on how marketable I might be to an independent agency that focuses on P&C. I want to be able to continue to maintain my non P&C book through my own agency and want to walk away with my P&C book eventually. (I'm willing to buy my P&C book at the end of my tenure.)

I've put most of my eggs in the individual health insurance basket. That basket fell. In Connecticut insurers will neither pay commissions nor renewals on subsidized business for 2017, nor on any business written after the Open Enrollment Period.

I am losing a lot of revenue, but am still working hard servicing clients during the OEP to maintain those relationships. I have about 1,000 active or recently active clients.

On the positive side:

I have a marketing plan and marketing collateral that have worked for the individual health and MA/Med Supp markets. I believe that I can modify what I have for other insurance markets.

I know how to generate leads both on and off the Internet.

I know how to sell.

I've been an agent for 31 years and have no dings on my license and no E&O claims.

I already have a P&C license.

I have hundreds of clients who pick up the phone when they see my company name on their caller ID. I believe that most of them will let me quote their auto and homeowners. (And there is no non compete clause to stop me from doing so.)

I have enough capital to make the transition.

On the negative side:

I sold P&C in the late 80s for about 4 years, but have no recent experience.

I know a lot of stuff and I can learn more, but I learn more slowly than I did twenty years ago.

I'm sure I have other negatives that I don't have the perspective to see.

Your Opinion?

If I walked into your office and told you my story,would you leap at the chance to make a deal with me or would you roll your eyes and show me the door?

What kind of a deal am I likely to get, if any?

Where should I look?

What would make someone in my situation more marketable?

What questions should I ask the person on the other side of the table?

Good luck! If I paid you no salary, you serviced your own book, you had penalties for bad underwriting, and you paid me a min of 3x for the buy out I'd consider a 100/80 split.
 
3x, 100% of the renewals.

Stout buyout, and that is an insane split. You'd basically be doing it for the bonuses. I would wager there would be absolutely no cross selling of the book and you still open yourself up on the E&O side, plus your agency will still be servicing. Inevitably you would get calls as the agency would show up on the policies and ID cards.
 
Stout buyout, and that is an insane split. You'd basically be doing it for the bonuses. I would wager there would be absolutely no cross selling of the book and you still open yourself up on the E&O side, plus your agency will still be servicing. Inevitably you would get calls as the agency would show up on the policies and ID cards.


What arrangement would be fair to both parties?


What arrangement would I likely be offered whether fair or not?
 
There's going to need to be an investment of time into getting you fully up to speed & I wouldn't want to invest that time. If I was going to do that, I'd hire somebody young who was maybe a waiter or non-college educated person w/ no real earning potential & offer them an enticing salary. They'd get no renewals & I'd turn them into a minion producer & they would never know what they're leaving on the table.

Best bet would be find struggling IA who really needs the numbers. It may be easier to get a captive to take you on b/c they most likely need the numbers...but then that's not a good long term route for you.

Best bet would be to to work for an agency for a year, learn the business. Then try & open your own shop.
 
What arrangement would be fair to both parties?


What arrangement would I likely be offered whether fair or not?

Being new to P&C myself, I can only guess. Although, I know what Todd proposed definitely seems too rich.

Ins1822 raises perfectly good points as well. I think ultimately it depends on how long the arrangement continues.
 
I am new too, but you already have 1,000 plus people to call on. Why work under someone else? I would find a licensed CSR that is toiling away for AMFAM or SF and offer them a bit more and let them go through the leads you have and maybe get a few referrals from them. If only half let you quote them and half of those give you a name or two, that is a hell of a start. It shouldn't be too hard to convince a cluster to let you get going, learn while you go. Devote an hour a day to learning P&C and in a month you will know more that most of the hacks out there. I seriously saw a posting on an agency facebook page from a popular commercial agent that mentioned she was looking for a contractor and didn't want to get raped, who says stuff like that? You are way more professional and well written from what I have seen. How hard is it to get with Progressive if you explain your current book? There is a guy selling Progressive out of his apartment down the road from me. He doesn't even have a real office and they are fine with it. Get Progressive or get with a cluster or pick up a few small regionals and hammer through what you have already.
 
I am new too, but you already have 1,000 plus people to call on. Why work under someone else?

I need someone to teach me the stuff I don't know. I don't even know what I don't know, so I don't know what to study. I'll walk in the door with a P&C license and sales experience, but with very little P&C specific knowledge.

I sold my last auto insurance policy in the year 17 BI (Before iPhones).

I will also need access to carriers. I want to be competitive. Right now when I have a Medicare Advantage appointment I never question whether Alston will make a sale. I work with clients who already trust me and I represent all the carriers. So I dispassionately wonder if Blue Cross or Aetna or UHC... is going to make a sale.

I know that I can't have the same certainty in P&C because I can't represent all the carriers, but I would like to represent more than a handful of carriers.

I was denied by a cluster. They told me that my P&C experience wasn't recent enough and that I would need to hire someone with at least three years of experience before they would consider me. I offered to work for six months in one of their member's agencies and leave my book behind. They said that wasn't enough.

Is it that hard? With 31 years of selling other lines, shouldn't I be able to learn enough of the P&C specific stuff in 6 months?
 

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