“We've had a few interesting interviews with a number of agents about how they are using technology. You see varying degrees of success. A lot of them do feel like they are on their own. There is a great desire among agents to help support their customers—by getting access to policy administration systems, or being able to see the notes from claims adjusters to let [policyholders] know the status of their claim.

[Agents] feel like they have to handle some of this [technology] themselves, but you do see [carriers] that are very proactive. For instance, American Family has done a lot with their agents with social media. They've built Facebook pages for them and offer a social media toolkit for the agents to engage with their customers.

You see varying degrees of support, but to be honest, though, you see varying degrees to adoption on the agents' side as well.