Carriers Marketing Directly to Agency Clients

[RickyG]

I find it distressing that carriers send marketing emails and mailers to current agency clients.

Example, agency client has home and auto with Travelers and a landlord policy with Safeco. Client forwards me an email from Safeco/Liberty Mutual which is a pitch to "click here" to apply for new lower auto rates in her state.

This is not an isolated incident and just "part of the job" but why should it be? This isn't even getting into a side issue of carriers direct rates blowing agency rates out of the water (currently Progressive a major culprit). I get they have different ratings for direct but we are seeing 30%+ lower rates on same exact coverages. Not to mention Progressive direct will take Kia/Hyundais 2015-2021 (or whatever the years are that carriers surcharge or avoid) but blocks quotes from agency partners.

I'm primarily just bitching as usual but more this just furthers my thought that the personal lines P&C market will continue to undergo massive changes in next few years making it less and less of a market share for IAs which is facilitated by our "partners". Which is fine, that business I get it but spare me the constatnt bs meetings with smiling know nothing regional reps spouting nonsense every few weeks about the partnership and commitment to IAs

 

[Newby]

I'm not a P&C agent but the obvious thing is…you are CHOOSING to sell carriers that compete with you. When carriers sell direct to consumer you should avoid placing any biz with them unless it is the ONLY place that will accept the biz.

With life insurance and Medicare you see agents comment all the time that they refuse to place cases with MOO for that same reason. They prefer to work with carriers that do not offer any direct to consumer channel.

 

[annon123]

I'm not a P&C agent but the obvious thing is…you are CHOOSING to sell carriers that compete with you. When carriers sell direct to consumer you should avoid placing any biz with them unless it is the ONLY place that will accept the biz.

With life insurance and Medicare you see agents comment all the time that they refuse to place cases with MOO for that same reason. They prefer to work with carriers that do not offer any direct to consumer channel.

Of course the problem with that may well be that the carrier that you refuse to do business with has the plan that best suits an individual consumer's needs. While not ideal for one's income, I do think there is a time and a place for an exception now and then. The Medicare programs come to mind - especially the network issues with MAP's coupled with MOOP.

 

[Policy Monkey]

I find it distressing that carriers send marketing emails and mailers to current agency clients.

Example, agency client has home and auto with Travelers and a landlord policy with Safeco. Client forwards me an email from Safeco/Liberty Mutual which is a pitch to "click here" to apply for new lower auto rates in her state.

This is not an isolated incident and just "part of the job" but why should it be? This isn't even getting into a side issue of carriers direct rates blowing agency rates out of the water (currently Progressive a major culprit). I get they have different ratings for direct but we are seeing 30%+ lower rates on same exact coverages. Not to mention Progressive direct will take Kia/Hyundais 2015-2021 (or whatever the years are that carriers surcharge or avoid) but blocks quotes from agency partners.

I'm primarily just bitching as usual but more this just furthers my thought that the personal lines P&C market will continue to undergo massive changes in next few years making it less and less of a market share for IAs which is facilitated by our "partners". Which is fine, that business I get it but spare me the constatnt bs meetings with smiling know nothing regional reps spouting nonsense every few weeks about the partnership and commitment to IAs

I 100% agree with all of this. We were just bitching about this exact issue in a Teams meeting the other day. Progressive is notorious for this, but all the auto carriers seem to do it (Hartford, Safeco, Travelers, Allstate, etc.).

 

[Policy Monkey]

I'm not a P&C agent but the obvious thing is…you are CHOOSING to sell carriers that compete with you. When carriers sell direct to consumer you should avoid placing any biz with them unless it is the ONLY place that will accept the biz.

The problem with that is that if you limit yourself to carriers who don't do this, you may only have a couple of options. And that won't get you very far in this market.

 

[Newby]

The problem with that is that if you limit yourself to carriers who don't do this, you may only have a couple of options. And that won't get you very far in this market.

Do most P&C carriers sell direct to consumer? Wow, I did not know that. That would not be good.

 

[Policy Monkey]

Do most P&C carriers sell direct to consumer? Wow, I did not know that. That would not be good.

Auto for sure. Not so much for homeowners.

 

[RickyG]

I'm not a P&C agent but the obvious thing is…you are CHOOSING to sell carriers that compete with you. When carriers sell direct to consumer you should avoid placing any biz with them unless it is the ONLY place that will accept the biz.

With life insurance and Medicare you see agents comment all the time that they refuse to place cases with MOO for that same reason. They prefer to work with carriers that do not offer any direct to consumer channel.

Choosing to not place with a carrier would be nice. In this case the policy in question which was remarketed to for an auto quote is a dwelling fire policy on a home build in 1984. In Nevada where the home is located we currently have exactly 2 carriers who would consider that home due to it's age and loss history (not of the home itself but of the owner). So, it was either Safeco or Travelers. Travelers also remarkets our clients.

 

[Allen Trent]

Do most P&C carriers sell direct to consumer? Wow, I did not know that. That would not be good.

Not "most". It really is a small % of total carriers, but it is the big national brands that have added any & all distribution channels (IA, captive, direct) & some do it under their subsidiaries. Allstate, AAA, Nationwide & others have offered their products to Indy agents while at same time limiting their captive agents access to other carriers or even the same product they supply to the indy or direct distribution. I think Safeco is owned by Liberty.

But there are tons of regional carriers that dont yet sell direct to consumer, but these are the same carriers with pressures for reinsurance rates, reinsurance retention limits & expense ratio problems with tech costs, etc

My son works for single state captive PC carrier, but he also has access to AAA, Safeco, Travellers & 3 or 4 regional carriers in addition to another 2-3 dozen carriers via the PC brokerage the captive carrier owns for Commercial risks & unique risks outside their own appetite/expertise. These carriers are knowingly appointing people they know will only send them the business that their main/proprietary carrier wont accept or rates are too high. That seems like a bad business model to me & adverse selection to only get the left over mediocre stuff, etc

 

[ehall2]

First, I have been an agent for 53 years and things have changed a lot over these years. Until the 2000"s companies relied on the agent. We know the people we insure and the property we insure. I tell companies this is the reason I have had excellent loss ratios over the years. But today, it's all about a report the companies get and so many of them are inaccurate. But, the companies don't listen to me when I tell them I know what the correct info is. They treat the reports like they fell out of heaven. I've gotten where I hate to hear the word, Lexius Nexus. Insurance companies today have some of the most ignorant people in the home office that have no idea what is like to be an agent. Travelers is the worst. They have me on restriction for property. My homeowner loss ratio for property last year was 14% and the year before it was 23%. So, they made a ton on money on my business so to reward me they put me on restriction. The P & C companies are hypocrites. Progressive put so many restrictions on their homeowner product you couldn't get anyone to qualify. I called our home office contact for property and he told me they really didn't want any property in Georgia. First, the roof couldn't be over 5 years old, then they changed so that the property couldn't be more than 5 years old. Our territory manager called last week and told us we couldn't write any more property with Progressive and they will non renew all of our property policies because I don't have at least 50 polices. My loss ratio on property last year was 16%, so they are making money on my business. So, they won't write new business but are cancelling my property contract because I don't have 50 polices. Can you say, "hypocrite". There was a company from Florida, Heritage Ins Co, that was writing homeowner coverage in Georgia but they pulled out and were non renewing. I told one of my insureds and was going to place him with another company. He went home and called Heritage to verify they were leaving Georgia and they confirmed but told him they would renew his coverage directly with the company. I've never seen such unethical, dishonest, crooked behavior from insurance companies in my 53 years of insurance