With turmoil in the financial markets dominating the headlines throughout the fourth quarter of 2008, the need for insurance companies to protect their reputations and address any issues related to their financial stability became necessary. Equally important, yet largely overlooked, was the need for producers to establish or sustain their relationships with reliable, dependable specialty markets-carriers dedicated to a niche or specialty regardless of whether the insurance cycle is in the hard or soft phase. Carriers that jump in and out of markets based upon pricing are part of the problem. To grow and prosper, agencies must have ongoing relationships with carriers that are focused on solutions.

Stable markets that utilize consistent underwriting and pricing, provide responsive claim service, possess intrinsic knowledge of the niche and have a long-term history or commitment to a niche can be the bread and butter of a successful retail agency. When everything else is stripped away from a producer's relationship with a client, an independent producer's identity and strength are based upon a variety of carrier relationships.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.