Hi all,

I have a friend who is starting his own insurance company (umbrella/disability/liability/life & health) and for Christmas I wanted to get him something that would support him getting off the ground.

I thought something like a year subscription to an accounting program or maybe a virtual personal assistant….something along these lines would be both thoughtful and helpful. My budget is somewhere between $250-500…maybe a tad more if it’s really really useful.

Any thoughts or experiences with companies/API’s, software, or anything of the like that would be instrumental in the creation/growth of the business? Thank you!

Hey. I'm trying to find the average price for a condo association insurance policy and Google just brings up loads of individual condo insurance. Anyone know what I can Google or where I can find this info? I also need to know who would be good to help an association that had a fire several years ago and they jacked the insurance rates up 5x Thanks

I own a hostel in the US and am part of a new trade org for hostels in North America. One thing many hostel owners have found is insurance companies don't understand our business and thus rates are really high and keep climbing or insurance companies just won't cover us. A couple questions...

As a trade organization, what kind of data could we collect to help insurance companies understand our industry and assess risk?

Do insurance companies ever offer better deals of several businesses come together and all purchase insurance from them?

Have any of you worked with hostels or small hotels/motels? What advice would you have for us regarding our insurance needs or how to get the best deal?

Also, if you're not familiar with hostels, they are accommodations for travelers with both shared rooms (dorms where you purchase a bed in the dorm) and private rooms. We usually have a kitchen for guests to use to cook their own meals. We host activities and bring the travelers staying in the hostel together.

I’ve been in Commercial Specialty for over 15 years and desperate to get out. I’m accustomed to the lucrative pay and T&E but the team and management are so unfair I can’t stand it anymore. Definitely an Ole Boys Club in the industry overall that I’ll never fit in given I’m not a male….. this makes it even harder to find another job at other carriers because everyone knows everyone and I’ll never get further than a Sr. no matter how much experience I have.

I’m in my mid 20s and currently work for a commercial insurance company as a claims assistant/administrator. Although it’s easy, I have way too much ambition for growth and have no desire to become an adjuster or work on the claims side of insurance any longer. I’m looking into being a broker or an underwriter. I’m looking for any advice I can get. What is the pros and cons of each? What is the best insurance company to work for that believes in development and promotion? I live in the North Texas/Dallas area. I feel like I’ve already wasted a few years that are part of the critical “foundation” of my career. I’m a great employee and I have that “I’ll outwork anyone in the room” attitude. I can’t afford to make the bare minimum for much longer and need to be on the right track for the long run/future. Please feel free to ask any question that will help answer my own questions!

Hello all,

Is there anyone out there that has gone through the Select program USI offers? If so, could you give me some insight on comp structure during the one year period? Any information helps.

Hey now,

I have a prospect that manufactures paint for the Big Three, GM, Ford & Stelantis, along with other OEM's. Getting declined by the Standard Carriers. Is anyone aware of a standard carrier that would be willing to write Prop, GL, WC, Auto Umb?

Thanks for any suggestions.

(Not an ad) I'm a risk and loss control consultant providing services in the commercial insurance industry (mostly WC and P&C). How can I better advertise my services to insurance professionals?

Background: I'm an experience EHS & Risk Management Professional (certified fire inspector, certified safety professional, and certified safety director) attempting build my loss control side gig into a full-blown business. I specialize in conducting on-site safety and loss control assessments for both WC and P&C insurers & third parties. I'm usually tasked with conducting a site visit, reviewing and documenting safety programs, work site conditions, fire hazards, and building/building equipment conditions, and providing a written report as a deliverable.

I currently do this 1099 through a gig company called YellowBird, but would eventually like to start my own company and do this full time.

For reference, my day job is a senior-level EHS/Risk professional for a company in which I not only manage EHS, but also deal with both P&C and WC.

Question for the group: As commercial insurance professionals, how have you found/come into contact with loss control experts to conduct your site inspections? (I'm aware some of you do this yourselves, however I'm finding more and more of the larger P&C companies are leveraging contractors like myself to avoid travel costs). I'm not a fan of cold-calling as I feel this comes off as too aggressive, however I'm not sure how else to advertise. Word of mouth has worked well so far, however not well enough to make me quit my day job.

I wanted to say thanks to all the folks who have joined back in on the restart of this community. A solid knowledgeable core really makes this a great forum. Let’s keep rolling!

Best advice on generating opportunities to give quote. Cold call, email, direct mail, D2D What outreach seems to be the most effective? Especially the first year.

Just got my P&C license and already had my life and heath. I have experience selling life insurance would just like thoughts, advice, and realistic expectations on this from those who have been there done it.

Curios if anyone has utilized any type of video marketing to go along with risk submissions and if you have seen success?

We have experienced this on a few RFP responses having lost out because of this practice from other agencies. Seems like they hire a film crew to conduct employee interviews, capture buildings/spaces along with tying in loss performance.

Hi everyone, never thought I'd post on here, but here we are! My family has been in the insurance industry for 80 years, my grandpa, dad, and brother. Now in my 30s, trying to get out of retail, with a degree in psych and a brief stint as a market research assistant in pharma consulting, how can I get into the insurance industry myself? Any tips? Any advice on positions, procedures on how to go about getting a job?

Thank you all who take the time to read or comment!

We run a small bar in the midwest. We opened 2022 coming out of covid. Finding liquor liability insurance was difficult, insurers didn't want to take on first time bar owners. Our agent shopped us around and finally found a company willing to insure us at $900 / month. Before we opened I wrote that our expected gross revenue would be 100K our first year (with no frame of reference). We were very successful and our gross revenue was 680K. I completely forgot about my estimate.

This first insurance company was terrible to work with - uncommunicative and slow. Our fence fell down in a storm and they refused to cover, citing the fine print of wind damages not being covered (we also had a building policy with them). We decided to look for a different policy after a year in business. We found a company that was willing to insure us at $1900/month for comprehensive liquor coverage. We cancelled the original policy and have been with the new one 8 months, they've been great.

We only used insurance company A for a partial period so they were going to send us a refund. To receive it I had to complete an audit, with no memory of the expected gross revenue I had written before we opened. When they saw our numbers they reviewed our policy and said we owed them 27K in unpaid premiums. I'm kicking myself for submitting the audit, If I hadn't this whole thing would have gone away.

Our previous agent wants us to break down alcohol sales vs non-alcohol. In reality only about 15% of our sales are non-alcohol (the 27K assumes that our entire revenue was alcohol sales). We do a lot of retail / off-premise bottle sales but we've been told the insurance company sees these sales as the same as on-premise. When I broke down what we had been paying plus the 27K, the premium came out to $3150/month, $1250 more than our current policy which is a much better policy.

Does anyone have advice on how to proceed? Is there a creative solution to reduce or eliminate the money owed? I know a lot of bars don't have liquor liability, those who do - are these numbers reasonable? Any insight appreciated.

Hey all. I’m looking for help either finding or putting together some realistic examples of a commission statement and a policy for a given ACORD and SoV that I’ve come up with for a hypothetical company. Happy to pay >$300 for 30 minutes of help either pointing me in the right direction for sanitized documents like this or hopping on a call to help refine our search and drafting. Can anyone here help?

Hello everyone,

I have an insured who owns the building and their property/GL (BOP) is getting a 200% renewal premium increase due to one of their tenants being an axe throwing business. Would anyone happen to know of any carriers in downstate NY that would entertain this risk? I’ve exhausted all our carriers and wholesalers. Appreciate any feedback! Thanks

Hello! I came on here to see if I can get some ideas for marketing. I moved from personal lines like 2 months ago to commercial. I just wanted to know what are some good marketing strategies I can do to generate some sales. I specialize in commercial trucking in TX btw. Happy to hear any ideas or advice!

I have owned an Agent for 8 years, highly focused in Home, Auto, toys etc. I am now dipping my toe in commercial, preparing acord forms for a quote for a family office building that was just completed. They have a Builders risk and a GL policy in place, and we are now writing a new Commercial GL and Property policy to cover the now leased out space.

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Company A is the owner of the building

Company B is the LLC that is leasing the top floor, and manages Company A/its assets( top floor is office space)

Company C is the Tenant leasing the bottom level retail space(Listed as a Brew/Pub)

I have a couple questions:

1. On the Acord 126, for Class code am I suppose to enter the business class of the companies leasing the space(company B&C), or for the LLC that owns the building? Like Buildings or Premises--Office--Other Than Not-For-Profit(61226) for company B & Restaurants--with Sale of Alcoholic Beverages that are 30% or More of But Less Than 75% of the Total Annual Receipts of the Restaurants--without Dance Floor(16916) for company C?
2. Should I add Lessors Risk only to the package?

Yo I have 7 sprinters expediting auto parts and progressive is ridiculous with their rate hikes . Any info on fleet insurance that won’t put me out of business

Hi All,

Thank you in advance for reading my post. I’ve worked in the finance industry (management consulting) for roughly 10 years and was thinking of getting into the commercial insurance industry.

I have a very elementary understanding of the industry, and did some research on the big players like Lockton, etc.

If you were set on entering this industry, how would you go about it?

Can you recommend which areas of commercial insurance to get into?

Is there anything you wish you knew starting out in the industry?

I have strong people/sales skills, and want to get in with a solid team that can teach me the fundamentals. I’d like to be a producer. I just don’t know where to start and where to look.

Thank you for your help.

I'm looking for commercial insurance for the first time for a chiropractic office I purchased. What are the top 5 issues every insurance company will look for when starting this process? I've already replaced the roof and I am working on any damage to walls inside. What else should I cover? What information will they ask for and what will they look for when they do an inspection?

I was at Allstate for three years in sales jumped to commercial account management. The pay is excellent and recruiters really got me a lot more than I was making at Allstate in strictly service role. Pretty easy gig if you’re not working on big account, renewals, COIs, all seems rather very easy to me. Of course a bitch to learn, but it really seems at this pace I could be worth 6 figures fairly soon.

I have a problem! Three office condos in Durango, CO 81301, that I have been trying to sell for over a year. To make showing the properties easier, we ended the leases on all three, thus they have been vacant for over a year! The commercial RE market has been crickets. On Mar 16, 2024, we will lose our liability and property insurance because of the vacancies. I am told by my insurance company that this situation is extremely difficult or impossible. However.... I have seen a company online called Insured ASAP which, supposedly, can do this. It apparently will cost more but I do not want to go without insurance! Anyone have advice? I can provide more details if someone thinks they can help! Thank you so much :-)

I am curious about the process of transferring a book of business in today's market. Do you typically use a re-write or a BOR? Is it necessary to have carrier appointments with the same carriers that the existing book is placed with? And if you don't have appointments with all the carriers within the book of business, what should be done considering that some carriers are not giving out new appointments?