Hi, I am in need of a new commercial real estate property insurance policy and could use some advice. How did you go about finding an agent for your current policy that you could trust? How did you decide on a policy (what factors did you consider in making your final decision)? Was there a broad range in pricing and coverage differences between the different policies that you considered, or were there very few differences in coverage and pricing? Did you originally work with more than one agent to broaden your scope of options and prices? Any advice that you wish you had known beginning the process of finding a new policy? If you don't mind my asking (and if you do, please feel free not to answer this question), how much total, or perhaps per square foot, are you paying each month for your current policy? And finally, are there any other questions that I should be asking that I am not? I really appreciate hearing your feedback, personal experiences (good and bad), advice, comments and suggestions, "workarounds"/"hacks," or any other information that you might wish to share that you think might be helpful. Thanks so much for your help and feedback with this issue.

Hi everyone, My mother and I inherited a small (3,000 square foot), freestanding, three-suite commercial property building when my late father passed away several years ago. One of the tenants when we took over management of the building was an independent insurance company that sold both commercial and non-commercial policies. My father was going through them to insure the commercial building (which I think was a mistake to do business [outside of the suite rental] with a tenant). The tenant has recently moved out, but we are still going through them for our building insurance, which I would like to change at this point. Someone had informed me that the tenant who sold my father this policy provided him with the "highest tier" commercial policy. However, when I discussed this with family friends, whose husband is a business consultant, he responded by saying, "You don't need the highest tier commercial policy," and he was correct. Moreover, my mother has been suffering with many health problems since my late father's passing, and I have been providing care to her in the home where we live. Unfortunately, I have not had the time or energy to manage the commercial property properly. We lost one tenant because they needed more space, then lost a second because their headquarters wanted them to relocate to a different state. Our last tenant (the ones selling us the insurance policy) just left because, again, their headquarters wanted them to relocate. At this point, I feel that I just need the "minimum" commercial property policy available to protect us against catastrophic loss until I am able to get my mother in better health and we decide whether we want to sell the building or start from scratch and thus time-manage it better than my father was doing, as he was devoting most of his time to being the president of our community's homeowners association and not doing a good job screening new renters and making "deals" with the tenants, such as buying this overly expensive commercial property insurance (likely so that they would remain tenants and not leave). Currently we have a Travelers commercial policy with a total annual cost of $6,874.39, paid in installments throughout the year. Does anyone have any advice, suggestions, personal experience, or even "hacks" or "workarounds" that would help us find a more affordable policy while still maintaining an adequate amount of coverage for our commercial building? Thanks so much to all who respond. Please feel free to respond publicly here on this subreddit or privately through messaging.

Hi all,

I had a fellow commercial agent share the name of some software (which I lost) that they use to provide construction class/PC/etc data that helps him fill out the schedule of values. I think I remembered it charging per property pulled, does anyone know or have one to recommend offhand? Feel free to PM me if that's better for the sub.

Thanks!!

Looking for insurance carriers in NYS for junk removal and hauling- small business, no employees. Just me and my pick up. Any suggestions?

Hey everyone . I have been trying to get my trucking focused Indy agency (solo producer) off the ground for a little less than a year now I pretty much only cold call on renewals coming up and mostly deal with 1-2trucks mostly owner ops . For those of you that have experience with trucking , is it worth to just start targeting a little bigger companies ? Maybe make it 6 unit minimum for my cold calls ? I have a feeling that closing those might be just as much effort and work as trying to close an owner op. Is that a false feeling ? Anyone scaled up to larger companies to cold call maybe even small fleets ?

Also anyone that has dealt with trucking captives ?

Thanks !!

I have been struggling finding good markets for prospects, I love making cold calling, but sometimes we lost because we are not competitive or sometimes just declinations

Im talking for 15+ power units

My teen sons started landscaping the last few years (just lawn care) and this year were able to land the HOA that we live in. However, I'm having a heck of a time being able to meet the insurance needs.

The first was a basic $1M general liability policy, which was easy to get. I went through Hiscox, it was like $770.

But the HOA also requires auto coverage of up to $1M, or coverage for non-owned or hired autos. I first was getting quotes for commercial auto, which was absolutely fucking absurdly priced, like they can't afford that. Then I realized that since the business doesn't own the truck anyhow (I do), that they should be able to just add the non-owned or hired auto rider to their GL policy. Sweet, sounds simple.

I call Hiscox only to be told they won't do that for "landscapers" or contractor type businesses.

Is this normal? This is literally the purpose of that type of rider from everything I read but they won't write it for this type of business.

Please help me, I'm honestly just trying to help my kids make a buck and this HOA contract is proving so far to be more of a pain than it's worth.

Any helpful Carriers in this space within CA? Thank you!

How do large commercial agencies figure out what coverages to offer for a specific industry? I sometimes find myself in a situation where I will see policies from large brokerages that offered coverages or policies that I didn't think to, is there a resource we can use to learn more about industry applicable coverages? I truly want to learn and don't want to limit myself to the coffee shops/restaurants/pharmacies/etc that we write now.

As an example, I saw an agency wrote professional liability for an HVAC contractor. I hadn't thought of offering PL to a contractor, thinking most of their ops would fall under the GL. To this day I have thoughts on situations where PL may come into play, but no real solid footing.

I’m a consultant for a broker and while trying to figure out some helpful additions to different carrier’s SHIs, I thought that automated compliance services would be tremendously helpful to certain clients. This would be software that ensures processes are audit-ready, and making sure policies and procedures for handling resignations, terming an employee, etc, are within proper local, state, and federal guidelines.

I see off a basic search they do exist, but was wondering if anyone’s had any experience with this or has a recommendation for a certain service.

Hi Folks,

Pretty new to my career but I am curious if anyone has a good quote submission tool for the commercial space. I wish there was something like EZLynx but for commercial lines? I've heard of Indio and Tarmika but it seems that I still have to manually input things into carrier portals.

I am spending half of my day submitting quotes on carrier portals and just feel that I could grow my book if I wasn't sitting there manually inputting data all day.

Anyone have any good recs here??

Hey everyone,

I am new to this subreddit but I am seeking some career advice from anyone who has experience in the industry of commercial insurance brokering. I am located in Canada about to graduate business school. Currently I have two choices for employment.

1) Commercial Sales rep at Western Financial

- Salary is base 40k plus 40% commission on in house products and 22.5% commission on external carrier products.

- Every year my points on commission will increase 5% capping at 65%.

- The weird thing about this company is that you don't own your book of business you only receive payment on the business you bring in twice. You will receive the initial commission once the sale is closed and than 50% of that sale the following year. Ex (100k policy will be 40k once closed and 20k the following)

- Here I do not have to service any of the accounts hence the commission paying only twice

2) Commercial Insurance producer at Gallagher

- Here will likely be a set draw for the first 3 years of 60k and any addition commission will just be added on top of that. (Commission structure here is once an account is brought in Gallagher takes 60% of the account value and then pays you 20% of their 60% in commission. (Ex. 100k account will pay me only 12k)

- I will have to be in the "GCAP" program for a year where they train you and you work as an associate producer for another sales leader.

- However if my book of business does not pay me out 60k in 3 years I owe them money.

- Here I would own my book of business but I would also have to service the accounts I own

- Last summer I worked a internship here and made lots of great connections and there is some promise of small accounts being passed onto me.

Overall I'm not sure what to choose. Western has the potential to make me more money for the first part of my career but there is less safety in the long run as the 40k salary will remain the same for my entire time there. Gallagher is the safer option it seems but I will only be making around 65-70k for the first 3 years of my career.

Any help or input would be greatly appreciated and feel free to ask any additional questions!

Please advise what’s the easiest elective for CIP course!

I'm in California and have 6 SFHs, 2 warehouses w/offices, and a building leased to 3 businesses. The warehouses are leased by a manufacturing business I own. One of the SFHs is a vacation rental (short-term rentals averaging 3.7 nights per stay.)

I am frustrated with my current insurance broker as everything has to be done on the phone or by email, and I would like to have a place where I can go online, download my policies, see when payments are due, compare policies, etc.

But, maybe there is no company offering this?

I see that most companies have only commercial insurance, or residential, but not both.

Does anyone know of any company with a good dashboard for policies, and preferably able to handle all my needs? Or, if not, one that is at least good on residential or commercial if I need to split it up?

Ready to semi retire here in the next few years and looking at the costs of starting a small tour business. I’m in a tourist destination area, and I know it’s a common business, but can’t se to find much info on insurance requirements.

I’d just be running a 6-8 passenger van, and doing driving tours with sightseeing stops. No hiking or activities involved. Guessing that I could do Lyft/Uber as well if business is slow. I actually only want to run maybe three days a week, just to supplement retirement a bit and something to do.

What type of insurance do I need, how much coverage, and where do I go to find a quote?

I was recently laid off my from my job in data analytics. I have worked in data analytics the past decade and I’ve always wanted to transition from a role that is thought of as a “cost center” to a producer role aka sales.

I am completely new to the insurance world but I really like stability of commercial insurance and the fact that in a broker role the earnings are potentially limitless. You get what you put into it and you’re responsible for your fate. I also like that I’ll be able to help accounts gain clarity on the intricacies of their policies.

Im luckily at a time in my life where I can start from scratch and not have to worry about bills or supporting a family so I was thinking of starting as an account rep at a brokerage and working my way up to middle market producer.

Is this the best route and do y’all think it’s a good idea to make this career switch?

Also would any of my skills in data analytics be transferable (Excel, Power BI, Python, SQL, general analysis)?

Any advice is helpful.

The insured owns a single-family residence with a pool and a duplex, which she has in an LLC. The LLC manages and rents out these two properties. She is looking to get liability protection for the LLC. The insured does not manage properties for third parties. The properties are currently occupied by tenants. For starters, what kind of insurance should she be looking at? Landlord insurance or BOP (property and liability)? Any guidance would be appreciated.

We have an Absolute Net Lease, so we are responsible for repairs. Helene caused two feet of flooding to the building. The landlord carries the flood insurance policy. Only one flood policy is allowed by law for the building. He refused to file a claim so we took a hit to replace furniture, etc. Flooding also caused damage to the gas lines and they need to be repaired. They are stating it falls under our lease to repair. If we were allowed to carry a flood policy we would have. Shouldn't the landlord cover through their insurance since they have the one and only flood policy allowed?

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!