Independent agents rate regional carriers overall as better to work with, but they like the technology that national carriers have, according to a survey by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York Inc.

Members were asked to rate carriers on a scale of one (poor) to 10 (excellent). Respondents only rated carriers they had done business with in the last 24 months.

A total of 31 carriers were initially included in the questionnaire. Three were dropped for insufficient response. The online survey was done by Vincent McCabe Inc., based in Skaneateles, N.Y., and involved 262 respondents. It was the second such IABNY study.

The overall performance carrier score came in at 70.4, a difference of 0.2 points from the previous survey. National carriers scored a point higher at 67.5, while super-regional carriers dropped 0.5 points to a score of 74.2. Regional carriers saw the biggest dip, 1.8 points lower, to 76. But overall there was more satisfaction with regional carriers than the national carriers.

In almost all six questions asked, the regional carriers outweighed the national carriers. The exception was technology and documentation ease of use, where the national carriers were almost two points higher than regional carriers at 72.3, a 0.6-point improvement over the first survey.

The national carriers led this category in the first survey. Super-regional carrier results dropped 0.4 points to 70.4, while regional carriers improved one point to 70.7.

National carriers scored lowest on the question of fairness of profit sharing and commission arrangements, unchanged from the first survey. National carriers scored 59.5, 0.4 points lower than the first survey; super-regional carriers came in with a 72.6, 1.1 points lower than the first survey; and regional carriers scored 73, 4.9 points lower than the November survey.

Kathy Weinheimer, senior vice president of industry relations and education for IIABNY, said the close results of this survey validate one taken earlier.

With the second survey behind them, the aim now is to conduct this survey twice a year and, as the body of statistics accumulates, it will be easier to spot trends within the report. The other aim of the report is to get carriers to recognize problems and make improvements.

While the summary report, available at www.iiabny.org, does not list individual carrier results, the association said New York Central Mutual, a regional carrier, had the highest scores of all the 28 carriers surveyed, topping the average in all categories.

Peerless Insurance, National Grange Mutual Insurance Company, Selective Insurance Group and Dryden Mutual Insurance Company rounded out the top five.

The national carriers included in the survey were American International Group, Allstate (Encompass), Chubb, CNA, Farmers, Fireman's Fund, The Hartford, Kemper, MetLife Auto & Home, Progressive, Safeco and Travelers.

Carriers that were the subject of less than 10 responses from agents were excluded from the survey, said Ms. Weinheimer

She said the association hopes to eventually be able to offer carriers the ability to customize some of the question so they can obtain more detailed information about aspects of their business that would be of interest to them.

The association hopes it will one day be able to offer the services of the survey to other state associations interested in collecting data on carriers for their members.

This is the second survey on carrier performance released by the Dewitt, N.Y.-based association. The first was released in November, and both surveys mirror the same results. The first survey received 191 member responses to six questions on individual carriers (see NU Online News Service, Nov. 7).

The increased response size did not significantly alter the overall opinion producers have of their carrier relations from the last survey.