Remember all the talk years ago about how independent agents were doomed to go the way of the milkman, and how consumers would eventually shove the useless middleman aside and buy their insurance either online or direct from carriers? Well, that's not happening anytime soon, with the latest evidence being Liberty's Mutual's bold commitment to the agency distribution system.
As reported by our own Mark Ruquet, Liberty Mutual sold its middle-market direct sale renewal business, retired its Wausau Insurance brand (which had been serving this niche on a smaller scale), and launched a new commercial business unit to work through independent agents–Liberty Mutual Middle Market.
This is clearly a strategic move for us, not a financial play, J. Paul Condrin, president of Liberty Mutual Commercial Markets, told NU. He explained that Liberty made the shift because its middle-market business was not growing in a field dominated by independent agents and brokers offering risk management services to their clients.
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