Here’s a little secret for independent insurance agents: if you really want the best results for your clients, form a relationship with your carriers’ underwriters.
The Importance of Carrier-Agent Relationships
When you break it down and get to the underwriter level, you’re dealing directly with the individual who’s going to approve and price the risk. All of a sudden that multinational, billion-dollar insurance carrier becomes less of an intimidating, bureaucratic presence and more of a personalized business partner.
As much as we’re all motivated by compensation, it’s ease-of-use and quote-turnaround that are most cited by agents when they they choose to work with a particular carrier. One way to achieve both is to nurture that partnership; that collegial relationship between the agent and the underwriter.
How to Get the Fastest Quote Turnaround
At AmTrust, we sell through appointed independent insurance agents and we encourage an open dialogue between the agent and our underwriters. The more information the agent provides about the risk, the better the outcome of the quote will be. Lengthy applications can be a time-eater, we know. But truly, the more thoroughly they’re completed the more accurately we can assess the risk and the quicker we can turn around the quote.
The information left off the application is critical for weighing the risk. Don’t just provide the minimum information. If it’s not complete and comprehensive it will take longer to produce a quote, and it may end up being based on inaccurate information and assumptions, or maybe even declined when it doesn’t need to be. It’s not enough, for example, to list “restaurant” as the classification. What are its hours? Does it serve alcohol? How long has it been in business? What is its claims history? How many floors are in the structure? The list goes on. And each is important to know.
Partnership is the Key to Agent Success
At AmTrust we encourage our underwriters to reach out to agents if they’re going to decline a risk. We expect our underwriters to have a relationship with the agents. It’s a much more productive partnership that way. You’d be amazed at how well we can price a policy and how thoroughly a customer’s exposures can be identified after a live conversation between the agent and underwriter.
Not an AmTrust appointed agent? Join our team and partner with our incredible team of underwriters to see exactly why our more than 50,000 agents choose to carry AmTrust products.