Marine Quote Rater Online This Month

Agents and brokers will be able to search the site for comparable rates for any class of watercraft, said Mike Smith, president of Global Marine Insurance Agency, the managing general agency behind QuoteCommand.com.

The site is intended to quickly provide the submitting agent with three quotes for basic coverage of many watercraft. Agents would be able to review the terms of coverage by clicking on the company issuing the quote, and also obtain information about the company, he said.

When the agent wants to bind the coverage, the system is designed to put a binding request in to one of the agency's underwriters for review.

"We wanted to make sure human eyes look at it before issuing the policy," Mr. Smith said.

If an agent applies online during business hours, he said, coverage could be approved in as little as 10 minutes to an hour. Agents would have access to the site 24 hours a day, so anyone applying for coverage after-hours can expect a reply the next day.

The rating mechanism is "pretty vanilla" in the complexity of risk it would evaluate, Mr. Smith explained. But agents can apply for more sophisticated risks through the system, which would be evaluated by the underwriter and may take longer to complete, depending upon the risk, he added. All communication would be done by e-mail or telephone.

Agents signing up to access the site have no volume commitments and can expect to be paid commissions "competitive with other MGA's," Mr. Smith said.

Global Marine has been dedicated to the marine insurance business since 1989, explained Mr. Smith, and is licensed in all states except Alaska and Hawaii.

The Traverse City, Mich., agency has 26 employees and produces a premium volume of $14 million.

Mr. Smith said the new site is scheduled to begin promotion this week during the Michigan Association of Insurance Agents state convention in Grand Rapids, Mich. The site, www.quotecommand.com, is scheduled for launch March 17.