Insurer Wants to Sign 100 Agents in 100 Days

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) will be looking to sign up new independent agents in 11 of the 18 states in which it writes. AIC hopes to find new agency partners in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Virginia.

Jon Beckham, chief marketing officer at AIC, says the insurer, which expects to write about $70 million of business this year, hopes to have that many new agencies in the fold by the fall so it can develop the relationships and be positioned to really start growing in 2012.

“We’ve got a lot coming out in 2012,” he said in an interview with Insurance Journal explaining the expansion.

The company writes workers’ compensation for small and mid-sized employers, along with commercial auto and general liability.

Beckham says he is looking for “quality insurance agents” who will bring a “flow of activity” of business that might typically now go to the excess and surplus lines market.

He’d like to speak with agents already targeting business in the company’s niches, which include construction, retail, wholesale, light manufacturing, staffing and healthcare, and who may be having difficult placing these account with the carriers they now represent.

The company is paying nine percent commission on new and renewal workers’ compensation and 15 percent on commercial auto and garage. It has plans to develop a profit sharing plan.

AIC began in 2003 as a single state monoline workers’ compensation writer in South Carolina. Today it writes 11,000 policyholders in three lines of business across 18 states. AIC is rated A-“Excellent” by A.M. Best.

On The Web: Listen to an audio interview with Beckham about the company and its search for 100 agents in 100 days.