Allstate Assoc. President Says Bury The Hatchet

By Mark E. Ruquet

NU Online News Service, July 15, 4:17 p.m. EDT?The Allstate agents association's new leader said he wants to end years of acrimony with the company and make his group's relationship more harmonious.[@@]

"As an association, we have had our battles with Allstate," said Dale Revels, president of the National Association of Professional Allstate Agents. "We do not want to be in the battle business, we want to be a business association group. That is where we want to take this association," he added.

Mr. Revels noted the Northbrook, Ill.-based carrier had changed its treatment of its exclusive agent force. Allstate and its agents began battling one another years ago when the company changed the agent's status from employee agents to exclusive, independent contractor agents. Suits are still pending by agents who charged the new system's arrangements discriminated against older agents.

Mr. Revels said, "The focus of the company is back on the agent. Up to three years ago, we felt the company was not focused on the agents, but the relationship has improved. We are working on generating more business and being more successful."

As an association, Mr. Revels sees an organization whose aim is to help agents find more effective ways of selling their products and protecting agent's books.

He said he wants the association to act more like independent agent association?s, such as the Florida Association of Insurance Agents, of which he is a member.

"We want to give agents the tools to increase their book of business," he said.

On the issue of agent's rights, the association wants to work at getting legislation passed that would prevent carriers from firing agents without cause. The association wants agents to be given notice of their release and provide a lengthy time requirement for notice, such as the one used in California where a 120-day notice must be given.

"The more notice an agent has, the more valuable his book of business becomes," he noted, because the agent has more time to sell that book and get the price he feels it deserves.

Mr. Revels said the group strategy calls for working state by state on this issue. Right now the focus is on Texas.

As for the relationship between NAPAA and the carrier, Mr. Revels said the association would welcome a closer relationship with Allstate, but it is not waiting for the company's approval.

"Their blessing would be great, but it does not matter," he said. "They are the main supplier of business for our agents, and we recognize that. But I think a less adversarial relationship is good for all of us."

Mr. Revels, an active Allstate Agent in Kissimmee, Fla., was elected NAPAA president at the organization's annual conference last month in Las Vegas.

He has been one of the company's exclusive agents for more than 15 years.

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Allstate Assoc. President Says Bury The Hatchet

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