Agents Will Thrive In Hard Mkt.

Anyone who thought the hard market would be short-lived is in for a rude awakening. Indeed, the most recent survey by the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers documented what it characterized as “the deep and deepening distress of the commercial insurance market.”

“Consumers, carriers and brokers alike are clearly on the cutting edge of pain now spreading to all segments of the U.S. economy,” according to CIAB President Ken A. Crerar.

As reported by NU's Mark Ruquet, of the 136 brokers surveyed during the past three months by CIAB, including July 1 renewals, 60 percent said premium rates rose between 10- and 30 percent, while 22 percent said rates soared between 30- and 50 percent.

“Many industry consumers had hoped the market would settle down by the July 1 renewal period,” Mr. Crerar said. “But our survey proves categorically that did not happen.”

What's an agent or broker to do? Be prepared to help clients manage a much larger deductible than they've been accustomed to self-insuring in the past. Consider going the captive route. Be far more aggressive in promoting and providing loss control services so that a client can get their exposures under control and present the best risk management profile possible.

Any agent or broker merely shopping accounts on price or trying to beg their way into overwhelmed wholesale markets are out of luck. There's no room for Willy Loman in the insurance business. Instead, clients need their intermediaries to be multitalented risk managers with a host of solutions, not just policies, to offer.

Luckily for consumers, we believe the bulk of producers are up to the challenge. This is a difficult time, but agents and brokers will prove their added value to a public that not too long ago suggested that “disintermediation” was the way to go.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, August 5, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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Agents Will Thrive In Hard Mkt.

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