Latest Agencies Headlines

All the headlines from our Agencies Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Organic 100

Aug 1 2011 // It’s that time of year again, when the nation’s leading privately held independent insurance agencies are put in the spotlight. Welcome to Insurance Journal‘s exclusive Top 100 Independent...

Insurer Wants to Sign 100 Agents in 100 Days

Aug 1 2011 // A commercial lines insurer is on a mission to sign a number of independent agents – as many as 100 of them – within 100 days.From July 12 through October 12, South Carolina-based Accident Insurance Co. (AIC)...

Surplus Lines Law In Effect; Taxes Up in Air

Aug 1 2011 // The implementation deadline for the Non-admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act arrived on July 21. States have been scrambling over the past year to update their surplus lines laws to comply with NRRA requirements and to...

Declarations

Aug 1 2011 // 100 Agents“We’ve got a lot coming out in 2012.” —Jon Beckham, chief marketing officer at South Carolina-based Accident Insurance Co., who said the company is looking to add 100 agents in the 100 days...

Agency Satisfaction With Insurers Not Driven by Price, Compensation

Aug 1 2011 // Insurance agents tend to give a greater share of their business to insurers with whom they are highly satisfied, according to a J.D. Power and Associates Insurance Agency Satisfaction Study-Personal Lines.The study, based...

People

Aug 1 2011 // Tim Brady, chairman and former CEO of Brady, Chapman, Holland and Associates in Houston, was named the 2011 Drex Foreman Award winner at the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas 114th Annual Conference & Trade Show...

Agents Question GM Free Car Insurance Deal With MetLife Auto

Aug 1 2011 // Independent insurance agents are raising concerns over a General Motors promotion that offers car buyers in the Pacific Northwest a year of free liability and damage insurance from MetLife Auto & Home.Hoping to put...

Surplus Lines Law In Effect; Taxes Up in Air

Aug 1 2011 // The implementation deadline for the Non-admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act arrived on July 21. States have been scrambling over the past year to update their surplus lines laws to comply with NRRA requirements and to...

Denialism: It’s a Win-Win Situation

Aug 1 2011 // Within confines, people can succeed without accepting reality. The Western church succeeded in building itself into a hugely successful entity while denying the world was round for 1,000 or so years. Many banks and bankers...

People

Aug 1 2011 // Wholesale insurance broker AmWINS Group Inc. is expanding its operations with a new office location in Morehead City, North Carolina. Karen G. Toler, formerly of Burns & Wilcox, has joined AmWINS to lead this new...

Agents for Logging Industry Hang On in Downturn

Aug 1 2011 // The logging and forestry industry has suffered dramatically since 2006, with the amount of lumber being harvested dropping by half to 5 billion from 10 billion board feet since then. Underwriters in this class agree that...

Declarations

Aug 1 2011 // 100 AgentsWe’ve got a lot coming out in 2012.” —Jon Beckham, chief marketing officer at South Carolina-based Accident Insurance Co., who said the company is looking to add 100 agents in the 100 days through...

People

Aug 1 2011 // Joseph Waked was named CEO of Buena Park, Calif.-based Freeway Insurance, a subsidiary of New York-based Confie Seguros. He will have responsibility for California, Texas and Arizona.Waked replaces Freeway’s former...

People

Aug 1 2011 // Wholesaler Swett & Crawford has added Ricky Dawson to its casualty staff in New York. Dawson, who has a background in both insurance wholesale brokerage and underwriting, previously served as a wholesale broker with...

Allstate Agents Hope Unionization Sparks Changes at Insurer

Aug 1 2011 // Some unhappy Allstate Insurance agents who say the insurer controls them like employees even though they are independent contractors are moving to affiliate with a union.The National Association of Professional Allstate...

Ready or Not, New Surplus Lines Law Is Here

Aug 1 2011 // The implementation deadline for the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act has arrived. States have been scrambling over the past year to update surplus lines laws that will conform with NRRA requirements, while agents and...

Web Exchange

Aug 1 2011 // Gunning for BusinessOn July 6, InsurnaceJournal.com ran a story about Aaron Merchant, a Farmers Insurance agent in Ahwatukee, Ariz., who in 2008, turned his firearms hobby into a small business, selling guns in a small...

Safe Driving Habits Pay Off for Consumers with Usage-Based Insurance Programs

Aug 1 2011 // The driving habits of personal auto consumers are shaping the way carriers price coverage today. Those carriers providing usage-based insurance (UBI) options, including telematic systems or devices to monitor an...

Essentials: Read the Policy

Aug 1 2011 // The insurance agent told his client to “read the policy.” It was simple but important advice. More likely than not, the client did not heed the advice. When the insurance policy was received it was probably...

Top 100 2011 Privately Held Independent Agencies

Aug 1 2011 // About This Report: Despite lingering economic challenges and the ongoing soft insurance market, the nation’s leading independent insurance agencies fared much better in 2010 than in 2009.Property/casualty premiums...