Unlocking Success: Expert Tips for Navigating the Business Insurance Market

 New Opportunities in Commercial Lines Insurance:

• The market for commercial lines insurance is evolving, presenting opportunities for better deals and enhanced coverage.

Direct Procurement by Brokers and Agents:

• Brokers and agents are increasingly bypassing middlemen (like MGAs) and going directly to insurers.
• This shift means potentially more coverage options, cost savings, and faster turnaround times for clients.

Benefits for Clients:

• Direct procurement can streamline the process, reducing the time and effort needed to secure coverage.
• Clients may benefit from quicker response times and potentially better policy terms.

Impact on the Renewal Process:

• Retail insurance brokers are moving towards direct carriers, moving away from wholesale brokers.
• This change can lead to more transparency and better retention of renewals.

Practical tips for clients:

• If your policy is up for renewal or you need additional coverage, ask your agent about new options.
• Ensure your agent is exploring all available markets to get you the best quotes.

Market Trends:

• Currently, there is a greater availability of quotes. Where previously you might have struggled to get a single quote, now you can receive multiple quotes from different markets.

Actionable Advice:

• Proactively check with your agent to explore different coverage options.
• Consider shopping around or requesting your agent to look into other possibilities to ensure you are getting the best deal.

Maximizing Benefits:

• Stay informed and involved in your insurance renewal process.
• Be the "squeaky wheel" to ensure thorough exploration of all potential coverage and premium options.

This episode dives into the latest trends and practical strategies in the business insurance market, helping you unlock success by securing the best possible coverage for your business. Visit at ActualHuman.com for additional resources. 

What is The Expert Podcast?

The Expert Podcast brings you firsthand narratives from experts across diverse industries, including private investigators, general contractors and builders, insurance agencies, vehicle specialists, lawyers, and many others.

The new market for commercial lines of insurance might be a great opportunity for clients to get better deals and better coverage. What's happening? Well, brokers or agents are now starting to go directly to the insurers to get policies rather than through a middleman or some type of MGA.

What does that mean for you as a client? It means that your insurance agent or broker, if they're smart, can now procure your insurance policy directly from the underwriter rather than having to go through some third party. That may get you more coverage, it may be cheaper, and it also might be a faster turnaround.

The last time you did your insurance, how long did it take you to send all the loss runs and fill out the Accord forms and all the details you needed to get your agent to get you coverage? Some of that might be ending, and here's why: retail insurance brokers are going to direct carriers and away from wholesale brokers. Wholesale might seem better, but it's one step in between; it's like a middleman.

For new submissions and clients, the reason why is because the retail brokers are very good and transparent and retain renewals. So, if you don't have to go through a broker, you may not have to jump through as many hoops, and you may get faster response times.

If you are ready for renewal, your policy is coming up, or you need additional coverage, make sure that you check with your agent to see if they have other options besides the last one that you did. There may be more coverage options by going directly to the insurance company.

Here's a good stat: on any given risk, you could go to 20 markets and get 20 quotes. That's what we're seeing right now. Three years ago, you could go to 30 markets and get one call or beg to get a quote. It's a different marketplace, so there's a lot more availability.

If your policy is up for renewal anytime soon, make sure that you're getting good quotes from your agent. Or maybe shop with another agent or broker. If they've dealt with you well and they treat you the right way, you don't necessarily want to jump ship, but you just want to make sure that they're exhausting all the possibilities of your different coverages.

Every agency has so many clients that they can't shop for everyone thoroughly every single year. So, if you're the squeaky wheel and ask them to look around at some other options, you may find you have either different coverage availability or even lower premiums that have materialized in the last year that you can benefit from.