There are some excellent excess and surplus lines markets in this industry, many providing products and services superior to those in the standard market. However, there are inherent dangers in using some E&S markets that agents should be aware of. In this article, we’ll present thirteen of them.
New and renewal policies should be reviewed thoroughly for completeness and accuracy before delivery to the insured. However, at certain times of the year when there is a heavy backlog, this could mean that insureds get their policies months into the policy period. So, how do you balance quality with responsiveness, particularly given the importance…
The insured is sued for damages arising out of an occurrence that took place many years ago. The insured is unable to find the policy in force at that time, so the insurer says they won’t respond. What do you do when a policy is lost?
Almost a year ago, we ran an article called “13 Caveats in Using E&S Markets.” While there are issues that agents should be aware of when using E&S markets, in an increasingly hard market, we think it’s time we pointed out the many pluses that E&S markets bring to the table. To do that, we…
You’re a small agency with a lot of big business connections, but you don’t have the markets or the staff to sell and service these types of major commercial accounts. One possibility is to broker them through a larger agency. While there are a number of contractual, E&O, and other issues (and pitfalls) to consider,…
You have an insured who has declared bankruptcy. How does this affect any premiums the insured owes? How does it affect any return premiums due the insured? How does bankruptcy affect cancellation due to nonpayment of premium? Can the insurer cancel on the basis that the bankruptcy itself represents an increase in risk? While we…
What is Benchmarking? It is a management tool in which an independent agent can analyze the agency’s financial and operating results against other agencies within its own peer group. This article explores a FREE service where you can add your own data and see how it compared to your peers.
Just because an independent agency places more business with one company rather than another does not mean anything nefarious is occurring such as unethically steering business. Even if the insurance company benefiting the most pays the most, this does not mean anyone is doing anything wrong. But to people willing to jump to conclusions, it…
In the midst of the credit crisis and economic turmoil, some very important accounting standards are coming to the forefront. Accounting is almost as boring as IT for most agency principals, but it is worth paying attention because the impact on this industry and your opportunities are significant.
We’ve recently received several questions about trust accounts. How does an agency with an internal premium finance program know if it is in or out of trust? Can a trust be held in an interest bearing account? In this article, we’ll take a look at some of these issues. As other arise, we’ll be updating…
