Interview with Eleanor Barnard, chief distribution, sales and marketing officer, Fireman's Fund Insurance Co.

Barnard: I not only have 14 years of working on the carrier side, I have an equal amount of experience on the agency / broker side of the industry. In addition, I worked with Mike LaRocco at Safeco and know his commitment to independent agents. This combination convinced me that this is the right organization to capitalize on my experience. Fireman's Fund is where I can bring value to the company and to Fireman's Fund agents and brokers.

AA&B: Both you and Mike are relatively new at Fireman's Fund. What are your plans for outreach to the company's distribution force?

Barnard: Our distribution strategy is about aligning our products and value proposition with how agencies operate and the customers they target.

Agency operations have a high degree of autonomy, including the customers they have and the customers they target. We need to get to a degree of expertise and knowledge about each agency's strategy so we can become our agents' carrier of choice.

Fireman's Fund currently has expertise in high net worth and affluent customers on the personal lines side, and narrow niches and segments on the commercial lines side. We're good at what we do in these niches. We will not lose our focus on those areas. Today, we apply that expertise to our distribution strategy. But as we expand our product range, we must be able to understand our agents' and brokers' profile. We want more customers to have a choice of Fireman's Fund solutions. To succeed, we must be able to align our expanded product offerings to those customers.

AA&B: What are your plans to achieve this?

Barnard: Our plan is to have a greater focus and discipline on how we work with agents. We will ask our agents to allow us to have a much deeper understanding of their strategy and organization. In other words, we want to have a profile of the agency that includes sales strategies and growth plans. This will allow us to understand how Fireman's Fund products can be maximized to bring the greatest value and solutions.

We will then ask the agency to engage in a robust planning process that identifies the opportunities, actions, resources and commitments on both sides to achieve the plan. This process is not something you do with every agency, or what an agency would do with every carrier. It defines, differentiates and deepens the relationship between the agency and the carrier. It lays the ground work for a win-win-win relationship: agency, carrier and customer.

AA&B: Does this strategy include plans to expand your distribution force?

Barnard: We are 100 percent committed to maximizing our relationships with our current independent agents and brokers. That is not to exclude the possibility or need to appoint new agents, especially in states where we are under-represented. As we implement a more focused approach to working with existing agents and brokers, we will have a deeper understanding of the customers they have and those they target and where we have a gap. This will enable us to be focused on where we need to appoint new agents to achieve our goals.

If we identify areas where our existing agents do not target the customers that are aligned with these new products, then we will seek to appoint agents in those territories.

AA&B: What do you see as the agent's biggest challenge right now?

Barnard: Agents face several significant challenges, starting with carrier financial stability. A year ago, who would have thought that we would be living in the current global economic environment and that carriers would be struggling financially and having their ratings downgraded and solvency questioned? Having a financially strong national carrier and its global parent, with ratings upgraded by one rating agency and affirmed by another, provides agents with a strong solution to this challenge. And it provides Fireman's Fund with a competitive advantage.

Another significant challenge is the continued soft market cycle and downturn in the economy. The impact of both of these on premium creates a depleting revenue base for agencies. Add to that some erratic pricing by carriers trying to negate or remain competitive in the face of downgradings, and agents face a challenge in trying to guide customers in making wise decisions.

Finally, independent agents continue to fight for market share against direct writers. Today, several independent companies compete with independent agents for the same customers. Fireman's Fund distributes exclusively through independent agents and has no plans to do otherwise.

It's a new day at Fireman's Fund, internally and externally. We will make significant investments in technology and expanded product offerings while we maintain our commitment and expertise in both personal and commercial segments that we have today. And we continue to have a 100 percent commitment to independent agents, which remain our only distribution channel.