NU Online News Service

A workers' compensation insurance carrier and twoWisconsin-based multi-line carriers topped the list in a survey ofindependent agents who were asked to evaluate the ease of doingbusiness with companies.

Action, Mass.-based consulting firm Deep Customer Connectionsreleased its "8^th Annual Benchmark Report: 2010 forProperty and Casualty Insurance Carriers." The report is based on asurvey of 7,800 independent agents who evaluated over 200 p&ccarriers.

When it comes to ease of doing business, measured by how easy itis for an agent to place business with a company, the top threecarriers 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 smalldecline last year," said Nort Salz, president of Deep CustomerConnections. "But there is more change in individual factors withthe index falling in some and climbing in others. This data helpscarriers identify improvement opportunities and priorities, whichis particularly useful in these times of tight resources."

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

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