NU Online News Service

A workers' compensation insurance carrier and two Wisconsin-based multi-line carriers topped the list in a survey of independent agents who were asked to evaluate the ease of doing business with companies.

Action, Mass.-based consulting firm Deep Customer Connections released its "8^th Annual Benchmark Report: 2010 for Property and Casualty Insurance Carriers." The report is based on a survey of 7,800 independent agents who evaluated over 200 p&c carriers.

When it comes to ease of doing business, measured by how easy it is for an agent to place business with a company, the top three carriers were:

o West Bend Mutual Insurance Co., based in West Bend, Wis.

o ACUITY based in Sheboygan, Wis.

o MEMIC, a workers' comp carrier based in Portland, Maine.

Rounding out the top 10 carriers:

o SECURA Insurance Companies in Appleton, Wis.

o MMG Insurance Co. in Presque Isle, Maine.

o Frankenmuth Insurance in Frankenmuth, Mich.

o Central Insurance Companies in Van Wert, Ohio.

o Westfield Insurance Co. in Westfield Center, Ohio.

o Auto-Owners Insurance in Lansing, Mich.

o United Fire Group in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

"Industry-wide, the overall index stabilized after a small decline last year," said Nort Salz, president of Deep Customer Connections. "But there is more change in individual factors with the index falling in some and climbing in others. This data helps carriers identify improvement opportunities and priorities, which is particularly useful in these times of tight resources."

Among the index measurements, marketing support needed the least improvement from carriers, but underwriting response and underwriting flexibility needed improvement.

One point of the survey shows that 99 percent of agents say making it easy to do business is critical to their decision as to which carriers they do business with.

Special Reports /

Agents Pick West Bend, ACUITY, MEMIC in Ease of Doing Business Survey

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