Why Are There So Many Allstate Agencies for Sale Now?

[The Man]

Zekewup is totally off base.

Like many companies Allstate has good points and bad.

Anyone really wanting information on Allstate should ignore the previous post. He does not know what he is talking about. There is alot of other information on these boards that is accurate.

 

[Biggus Blockus]

Danny Devito

"You know, at one time there must have been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I'll bet the last company around was the one that made the best goddamn buggy whip you ever saw."

He'll be making that speech at the State Farm stock holders meeting in 5 more years.

Great movie - great line - but not accurate in this case. SF is stronger than ever and it's agency force is part of the reason why. Also- FYI - State Farm is a Mutual company - so there are no stockholders.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Sorry but I don't see how any brick and mortar insurance operation will be able to make it over the next 10 years. I'm not saying SF will tank but they'll need to change their business model.

 

[JessicaP]

In my district we have had three agencies close in the past three months. Florida is a hard market anyway with all the legislation changes of late. Add on 4 rate increases on Allstate auto in one year, plus the non-renewal of 90% of the homeowners market in 05-06 and almost all of the commercial property insured by Allstate, stir in the increased financial requirement for agencies by Allstate and you have a mix that is pretty hard to swallow for a lot of agents. Thats why a lot are selling, at least in my state

 

[xrac]

I have no affiliation with these people but received this by email and throught it might be of interest.

Texas Insurance Agency was established by 3 former Allstate agents who saw the vision that customers wanted greater choice than what Allstate had to offer. Texas Insurance Agency has helped many former Allstate agents with questions related to starting a independent agency and is happy to help you. Like you, we felt trapped and isolated thus, we made the separation and the rest is history. If we can be of any assistance or provide you with moral support, please call us at 281-398-1010 or by web at OpenDNS. com or ktexins@sbcglobal. net Remember there is life after Allstate!

 

[CaptiveBroke(r)]

It seems Allstate changes their direction yearly and agents are consistently inundated with emails, phone calls and visits concerning expected results, life production and making certain their offices open and close at certain times. They also must turn their phones over to Allstate's 24 hour customer service where there untrained employees usually give customers incorrect quotes and misinformation.

During the "mass termination" of Allstate agents in 2000, agents were under duress to sign over to independent contract status or lose their "jobs". If they didn't step over to the other side, they were give their last years income and set free.

Promises were made that they would be allowed to be "entrepreneurs" and be able to control their own destiny. They were also promised that besides any pension that was vested for them, there BOB's (book of business) would be there primary retirement resource and that they would be able to market it when the agent felt it was time to leave.

States like New York are going through a Hurrican Risk Management termination of their homeowner policies. Allstate is systematically non renewing all HO polices that are less than 10 years old, regardless of any support the customer may have....Imagine having your auto, life, IRA and VA with Allstate and now your HO is non-renewed? Guess what the customer is going to do?

Presently, BOB's can only be sold to "qualified buyers" on the outside or from agents that are in are certain RFG (achievement of certain goals) level. Also, agents cannot close the retiring agents office, in most cases, and thus the buying agent now has to run both offices, two staffs ...and guess what else?....Two sets of expected results!

Maybe the newer generation of captive agents will be successful as their marketing stratagies have always been successful and their name brand is phenomenal but they don't seem to have the agent as their primary interest at this time.

 

[JasonH]

If you look around they have an office every 1/2 mile competing with eachother. Also, I believe they are selective on who they will insure and it is tough to compete with direct insurers like GEICO.

 

[russcarr]

I just received a call from Allstate today asking if I would be interested in owning a Allstate business. What the person told me today is that you can buy "booked business" to start so you have business right from the start. In addition, I am not currently licensed and he stated that Allstate will ensure that I do get the required licenses and full training for no additional costs.

Being that this is new to me, what am I missing here? Is this "booked business" not real policies or does this mean something that I am not understanding?

I understand that they do have a great deal of policies that are being turned over since there are a lot of offices/agents closing/retiring. So, would this not be a good thing that you can actually buy into the business with actual policies on the books? This way you can go after new business while you are working the current client list?

Again, being that I am not in the industry today I may be missing something. Can someone please let me know before a get myself into something that I will regret?

Thanks

 

[rockaya]

The truth about Allstate is that the "Good Hands or the Boxing Glows" claims settlement mentality is hurting their repetition among buyers. Also they are experiencing, like most large Property Insurer's, a 118% combined ratio which drove them to close their property operations under "Allstate Property & Casualty Company" in most states in November 09. Of course it was a seamless company closing since they set up a new company the same month. However the new company has double the rates for older homes. Good luck selling any property policy on older homes against statefarm who is eating the loss on their property operations. The 104% combine ratio won't hurt Statefarm. By the way Geico is trying to open captive agent conventional offices in all its operating states to get a grip on their 78% retention.

 

[xrac]

There are now ten Allstate Agencies for sale in Indiana including one in my town.