The latest in the “independent insurance agents are dinosaurs” studies has come down from McKinsey and it's a doozy. The gist: Independent agents who approach selling insurance as a commodity are doomed. The study specifically points to changes in the way people buy auto insurance as an example of where the rest of the industry is going and predicts the demise of the commission system as we know it as carriers recognize the need for agents to provide “extras” to get and keep customers.

Shocking, right? Still, haven't we been here before–both very recently (with the Deloitte study showing that 1 in 5 small commercial insurance buyers are more willing to go direct) and in the past, when direct writers, insurer-run service centers and other threats were supposed to deliver the coup d'etat to the independent agent system? More to the point, aren't most of you way ahead of the curve and adapting by sheer necessity?

Just this week we did a story on a J.D. Power study in which the big take-away is that small commercial buyers (the same guys who Deloitte says might be inclined to buy direct) depend on the counsel of their independent agents–and ironically, actually value in-person communication above email. (I remember a mantra from the early days of insurance technology extolling the value of “high-tech, high-touch” customer contact. In spite of the slight creep value of that saying, it still holds true.)