Parents are always parents and most parents never stop worrying about their children. Such worry, though, sometimes robs children of their success and happiness. In agencies, the parent/owner is often so worried about their son or daughter failing, they put their children in a position that definitely prevents total failure, but it prevents success too.
We recently received this question: “Are you aware of any firm that provides insurance company scorecards…something an agent may use to compare companies that he/she may wish to do business with?” Well, as a matter of fact, we do…one of our VU faculty members has such a tool, along with one from our Best Practices Joint…
In March 2002, Ethics Awareness Month, we ran a contest with three ethical dilemmas, asking our newsletter readers to respond with their answers. Below is one of those questions, along with many of the responses we received. If you have any thoughts you’d like us to add, email them to [email protected].
Time is running down! Of critical importance to agencies, companies and other financial institutions are the privacy provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). In this article, we’ll summarize some important features and tell you how to get more information, including sample notices.
In another article entitled “Binding Authority Weather Restrictions,” we discussed how nebulous (and onerous) some underwriting restrictions can be when they’re based on rapidly developing weather conditions. With the recent series of Gulf Coast hurricanes, similar situations arose involving both underwriting and coverage restrictions, one of which appears to violate the policy itself. In this…
With the beating that many carriers have taken over the past few years in personal lines, it is more important than ever to improve loss ratios. In this article, our agency management gurus will offer some suggestions to improve agency underwriting of personal lines accounts.
You’ve seen those headlines about unscrupulous corporate executives cooking the books. The passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is supposed to have forced many employers to take the ethical temperature of their workplace. It is coming as no surprise that what they’re finding is an outbreak of seemingly innocent, yet clearly inappropriate, workplace behaviors that are…
In March 2002, Ethics Awareness Month, we ran a contest with three ethical dilemmas, asking our newsletter readers to respond with their answers. Below is one of those questions, along with many of the responses we received. If you have any thoughts you’d like us to add, email them to [email protected].
Since this “article” covers so much ground, the only logical spot for it was the Miscellaneous section of Agency Management. This was a question submitted to our “Ask an Expert” service and the composite responses are shown after each part of the question.
March is Ethics Awareness Month. I want to ask if you can afford to be ethical? You may be surprised to learn that my short answer may be “No.” It is expensive in many ways. To learn how from the findings of a study and my own personal experience, keep reading….
