Editors' Featured
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Brokering the Hot Cyber Liability Market
With data breaches in the news, cyber liability insurance is gaining recognition. The market is expected to triple in size over the next few years. Brokers need to understand the risk and know what’s covered and what’s not under the various policies being offered, advises Graeme Newman, CFC Underwriting in this report from Insurance Journal’s [...]
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How New NRRA Regulations and California’s AB315 Will Change the Surplus Lines Industry
Jerry Sullivan, the head of the Sullivan Group, gives his views, largely positive, on how the Dodd-Frank NRRA regulations will require changes in the way the surplus lines industry operates, in this interview with Insurance Journal’s Charles Boyle.
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100 Agents in 100 Days
Accident Insurance Co., a growing workers’ compensation and small business insurer, is looking for 100 new independent agents within the next 100 days— through Oct. 12. Opportunities exist in 11 states. Jon Beckham, AIC’s chief marketing officer, speaks with Insurance Journal’s Andy Simpson about what the company is looking for, what it’s offering, [...]
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IIAT Executive Director on Certificates of Insurance, PEOs and Workers’ Comp
Texas Gov. Rick Perry in mid-June signed separate legislative measures backed by independent agents that: (1) requires regulatory approval of property and casualty certificate of insurance forms provided to insureds as proof of insurance coverage; and (2) requires staff leasing firms to provide workers’ compensation loss information to client employers in timely manner.
The [...] -
From Accidental Agent to Insurance Goddess
Like many insurance agents, Carrie Reynolds never meant to be one. But 15 years after she became in her own words, an “accidental agent,” Reynolds is now a principal in Alan Galvez Insurance, an agency started by her father in Bellefontaine, Ohio. She’s also the Insurance Goddess.
As Reynolds’ alter ego, the Insurance Goddess is an [...] -
How Technology is Changing Accident Reconstruction
Despite detailed accident reports, witness accounts and damage photos accident reconstruction can be tricky business. That’s where the annual ARC-CSI Crash Conference, held in Las Vegas, comes in. Live, full scale crash tests and technical presentations provide in-depth collision reconstruction and investigation education.
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Growing Opportunities for Insurance Industry’s Women
Although men still outnumber women in the property/casualty insurance industry, there are many meaningful opportunities for women in the business, says Barney & Barney Principal Trindl Reeves. With more than 20 years of experience under her belt, Reeves — who recently received an award for her efforts to promote professional growth for women executives [...]
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Mobile Food Vendor Insurance Market Trucking at High Speed
Insurance experts hungry for new business have found the mobile food truck business to be one of the healthier growth markets in the past few years. Technology can help to service these mobile customers quickly and efficiently. Yet to be really successful in this program business, Matt Carlson, vice president of Risk Strategies Co., says [...]
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Consolidation Nation
The big state agency that oversees insurance producers in New York State will soon become a whole lot bigger — and that’s left a lot of agents in the Empire State wondering just how that will affect them.
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Webinars: A Simple Way to Help Educate Your Clients
As insurance agents help to educate their clients, Heffernan Insurance Group’s Director of Corporate Communications Ann Basco recommends exploring the idea of hosting seminars or webinars. There are advantages to both seminars and webinars, and Basco says they are a great way to provide added value to clients.
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Agent-Customer Conversations Offer P/C Insurers New Insight into Sales Process
Simulating conversations between an insurance agent and a customer during the selling process seems to be providing property/casualty insurers with a more in-depth understanding of successful, and perhaps not so successful communications strategies. In this interview with Insurance Journal’s Andrea Ortega-Wells, Bronwen Clark, qualitative manager for CMI, an Atlanta-based marketing research organization, discusses CMI’s own [...]
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Agency Communications: Secrets to Sending Out Engaging Newsletters
As independent insurance agencies look to boost their PR, e-newsletters can be a great way to reach out to either a select group of clients, or a broad audience. In this interview with Insurance Journal’s Patti Tom, Heffernan Insurance’s Director of Corporate Communications Ann Basco talks about how develop content for a newsletter, and [...]
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A Focus on Providing Value Serves Minnesota Agency Well
Thirty years after taking his first insurance licensing exam at age 16, Mark Moores, owner of Moores Insurance Management in St. Paul, Minn., and incoming president of the Minnesota Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers Association, is still as passionate about the business as he was as a teenager. Moores describes his consultative approach to helping [...]
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Markets in Motion: Medi-Spa
The anti-aging market has become more sophisticated, more profitable and more risky. From botox injections to laser treatments, the exposures for those in the medi-spa segment are great but so are the opportunities for agents as this class grows. In this edition of Markets in Motion, Susan Preston, president of Professional Program Insurance Brokers and [...]
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Start Small When Embarking on a Social Media Campaign
There are many ways in which an insurance agency can communicate with clients. But if nothing else, Heffernan Insurance’s Director of Corporate Communications Ann Basco suggests agencies consider the power of social media — leveraging the tools is easy and inexpensive. In this interview with Insurance Journal’s Patti Tom, Basco also talks about what content [...]
Featured
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Norwood on Workers’ Comp
John, principal of Norwood & Associates, has been an lobbyist for insurance and financial services sectors across several decades. Norwood offered a focused looking at the all-important workers’ compensation issue, and he gave his thoughts on health insurance exchanges. In fact, Norwood forecast that 2012 will rank as an important one when it comes to [...]
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Lobbyist Norwood Analyzes Consumer Watchdog Legislation
John Norwood is one of California’s best known legislative advocates for the insurance and financial services sectors. Norwood spoke to the Insurance Journal about legislation and regulation, including a proposal by a consumer advocacy group that would establish prior approval for healthcare insurance and would make major changes to auto insurance and homeowners insurance in [...]
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At-Home Insurance Careers for Disabled Veterans
For insurance agents Gary Trippe and Jim Pender, the idea for DVIC, or Disabled Veterans Insurance Careers, which aims to guide disabled veterans into careers in insurance, evolved in part from their own personal experiences with disabled family members. In this interview with Insurance Journal’s Andy Simpson, the two share their dream of an organization [...]
Popular
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Entrepreneurial Technologists
This year the Entrepreneurial Insurance Alliance (EIA), sponsored by MarketScout, named Vertafore and Risk Metrics, as winners of it 2011 Entrepreneurial Award in technology. Vertafore’s WorkSmart and Risk Metrics’ Insurance 360 technology products received recognition from the EIA as being some of the industry’s most innovative concepts in technology. Each year, the EIA receives hundreds [...]
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How Insurance Distribution Is Changing
Retail and wholesale brokers face the challenge —and opportunity— of redefining their relationships and value proposition in today’s changing insurance distribution world, according to Glenn Hargrove, president, MarketScout Wholesale, Dallas, Tex. In this interview from the recent Western Insurance Agents Association’s Insurance Industry Roundtable in California, Hargrove outlines the value proposition of agents and brokers [...]
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Interesting Times in Medical Liability
The medical liability market continues to perform well even as the nation struggles to implement health care reform. Robert Allen, senior vice presidents at Torus Insurance, says many health care institutions are implementing new strategies to be successful in today’s health care reform world. In this interview with Insurance Journal’s Andrea Ortega-Wells from the annual [...]
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Pat Ryan Asks, ‘Are You Happy?’
Patrick Ryan is an innovator who sees opportunity. And it was opportunity that drove him to launch Ryan Specialty Group in early 2010. Success lies in hiring “good people,” Ryan says. In this interview from the annual National Association of Surplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO) annual convention in San Diego, Ryan says his newest venture gave [...]
Random
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eMarketing for Agencies
Agency Management Done Right is an audio podcast hosted by Mitch Dunford exploring various aspects of agency management.
The topic of the sixth episode is eMarketing for Agencies, and Mitch is joined by Adam DeGraide, founder and CEO of Astonish Results. Topics of conversation include the events leading to DeGraide’s development of the Digital Marketing [...] -
ACORD/LOMA Interview with Steve Anderson
To Steve, the ACORD/LOMA conference represents an opportunity to see what’s happening in the
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Outgoing Louisiana Citizens CEO Favors a Team Approach
When John Wortman, the outgoing CEO of Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state’s property insurer of last resort, joined that organization in 2007 it was overwhelmed with claims and litigation resulting from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and beset by software woes and a bookkeeping debacle, among other things.
By all accounts Wortman, a seasoned insurance [...] -
MyNewMarkets.com Exchange Conference Connects Agents with Markets
The MyNewMarkets.com Exchange is an insurance “market fair” where agents and brokers who need markets are brought together with the MGAs, wholesalers and carriers who provide them. The intent of the Exchange is to help insurance agents obtain new markets for their customers at the event itself. Participating sponsors staff “trading desks” consisting of a [...]
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