NU Online News Service, Nov. 1, 11:05 a.m. EST

Allstate Corp.'s chief executive says the compensation given to agencies is changing to give more money to agencies performing the best.

Thomas J. Wilson, chairman, president and chief executive officer, says he understands the change will “obviously create concern” for some agencies, but Allstate will not change the amount they have given to agencies—only the manner in which the amount is doled out.

In the past, compensation has been 10.7 percent of premiums, with 10 percent locked and a 0.7 percent bonus, or incentive, which amounts to $200 million to $250 million per year.

Starting in 2013—a date moved back from the company's previous plans to change the compensation structure in mid-2012—compensation will still be 10.7 percent but 8 percent will be locked in and 2.7 percent will be given based on the performance of the agency.

During a conference call on the company's earnings, Wilson says agencies “don't need to jump over the Great Wall of China to get the money.”

The Northbrook, Ill.-based insurer is encouraging larger agencies by giving loans for acquisitions in a move Wilson says will increase agency capabilities to serve customers better.

The size of Allstate's agencies has increased 10 percent since 2009 but the overall number of agencies has decreased 14 percent, reports Wilson, adding that he expects “some agencies will be unhappy” with the changes but Allstate's goal is to “make as many agencies that want to be successful, successful.”

“Their success is tied to our success,” Wilson says. “We're in this together.” Allstate is not making the changes to create a fight with agencies, he adds.

Wilson says the company elected to moved back the start-date of the compensation changes to “give a runway for agencies to adapt” to them.

The chief executive says he misspoke when he told an analyst earlier in the call that agencies had the option to opt in to the new compensation structure in July 2012. That option has been eliminated, he says, due to lack of interest.

Wilson placed the blame for a decline in new auto insurance applications not on agents, but on the company's overall strategy to increase homeowners' insurance rates and reduce exposure in some less-profitable areas.

Allstate agents are going through big changes with the new compensation structure and the integration of Esurance and Answer Financial, an acquisition completed during the third quarter. Some agencies joined together to acquire union affiliation.

However, the agents will be counted on to generate business in order for Allstate to meet its goal of 13 percent operating return on equity by 2014.

Improving results in homeowners' insurance is vital, says Wilson. Average rate increases of nearly 14 percent were approved in 15 states during the third quarter. As it looks to get rate, Wilson says Allstate has not gotten any trouble from regulators or competitors.

“We're all losing money,” he says.

Allstate has worked to increase the spread of its rate increases (a home in one area of a state might see rates go up slightly while others see a steeper increase) as the company work to improve pricing, particularly as it relates to roof damage cause by wind and hail, Wilson says.

“The goal is to get returns up,” Wilson says. “We're going to keep banging away as aggressively as we need to, to get returns up.”

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