While the vast majority of agents told the Hanover they sell specialty lines, most of them still consider themselves generalists, even when handling a combination of standard and specialty lines. Only about 40% said they consider themselves specialty-focused. (Credit: Rawpixel Ltd./stock.adobe.com) The report found that when it comes to carrier considerations, agents place specialty business directly with carriers about half of the time. The remainder of the time, they may leverage wholesalers, managing general agents (MGAs) or managing general underwriters (MGU) to increase market accessibility or expertise with certain products. (Credit: Rawpixel Ltd./stock.adobe.com)

A majority (96%) of agents sell or place both specialty lines as well as standard lines products, says the recently released "State of Specialty Insurance Report" from the Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. The report, conducted in conjunction with Zeldis Research, studied over 300 independent retail agents in order to figure out how they approach specialty lines.

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Brittney Meredith-Miller

Brittney Meredith-Miller is assistant editor of PropertyCasualty360.com. She can be reached at [email protected].