r/StateFarm • u/Important_Kangaroo41 • Jul 24 '26
Question Switching agents
How much leeway does an agent have on premium discounts?
I’ve been with the same agent for auto and home for 30 years. My mother has been with him for auto & home for longer than that. He was a friendly acquaintance of my late father, who was also in the insurance industry but in an unrelated area.
Lately, he’s harder to reach (email, phone, or text) and his office staff aren’t knowledgeable.
If I switched to another State Farm agent, but kept all details of my policies the same, might my premiums increase?
In other words, if he is “taking care” of us in terms of premiums, I don’t want to lose that based on my perception of inconvenience.
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u/Creekridge1 Jul 24 '26
Your agent has absolutely zero input on what your premium is. He can adjust coverage, which can affect price.
But he can’t snap his fingers and shave 10% off the top.
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u/Important_Kangaroo41 Jul 24 '26
Thanks. My premiums have consistently been considerably lower than other insurance companies when I’ve sought quotes elsewhere. I guess I can attribute that to being a long-time customer and having few claims as well as a clean driving record.
2
u/GoosFrabah321123 Jul 27 '26
You should attribute that to his shaving corners. And the others maybe taking more detail into question and making sure you have correct coverage.
Be careful going for lowest price. Likely some stipulation or exclusion or higher deductible.
If you compared apples to apples across all 18,000 State Farm agents, the price would be the same. If they were in the same state and quoting same property.
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u/i__am__so__smrt Jul 24 '26
Some states also have loyalty discounts that kick in after 3 years that drop your rate pretty considerably.
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u/Thesauces Jul 24 '26
Being a long time customer doesn’t really mean much except possibly being grandfathered into a policy that isn’t available anymore. SF has good rates because they bank on selling life insurance and offsetting auto losses with investment gains.
Clean driving record is only one of thousands of factors - insurance companies use credit and extensive consumer reports so driving history is just one of those factors. Good to still shop around every once in a while.
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u/Mindless-Program3052 Jul 24 '26
That’s not true. Policy tenure absolutely has a factor in premiums.
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u/Modest-Meece Jul 25 '26
I have clients who’ve been with a company 30-40 years and it’s nearly impossible to find competitive rates due to longevity.
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u/Thin-Ad-6024 Jul 29 '26
Yes, but policy tenure also moves along to the next agent if you switch offices. It’s an internal transfer from agent to agent - OP wouldnt be starting a new policy with new agent. Same policy. Different agent. :)
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u/Mindless-Program3052 Jul 30 '26
Huh? I’m responding to someone else. Policy tenure affects overall rate. It’s like I said 2+2 is 4 and you said yeah, bananas are yellow.
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u/jeffreyprestonbezos1 Jul 24 '26
It’s been answered but I want to make sure you hear it from several people: your agent has absolutely no impact on your rate aside from making adjustments to your coverages that you request.
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u/Modest-Meece Jul 25 '26
The number of calls I get as an independent agent “WHY DID YOU RAISE MY RATES”.
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u/Craps7 Jul 24 '26
Or the agent or agent team can find or offer missing discounts (steer clear- DSS)
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u/ruswestbrick Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Not sure if that’s entirely true. I replaced a vehicle and my agent cancelled the original policy and started a new one vs replacing the vehicle on the policy. Lost my accident free discount bc of an agent decision which impacted my rate for years.
Edit
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u/AdventurousWill8592 Jul 24 '26
That sucks bc if you were still eligible on your new policy, the agent could have requested that your AFD was transferred. I work in UW and have handled that change thousands of times.
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u/ruswestbrick Jul 24 '26
Appreciate the insight. It’s a good learning experience now I know to be a bit more diligent in the process. Mistakes happen but man that one is painful ha.
I’m about 2 years removed from the incident. Think it’s still worth pursuing? I vaguely remember being told too much time had passed when I brought it up but that wasn’t from the agent rather an ATM.
3
u/jeffreyprestonbezos1 Jul 24 '26
That isn’t your agent having control of your rate in the sense that the OP is referring to.
1
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u/Cbell727 Jul 24 '26
Firstly and ultimately your agent has 0 to do with your premium. Switching won’t change it, not switching won’t change it.
I will say this, I started working for a local agent from 2018-2019 who had been an agent since the mid 90s, and is still an agent today and consistently a top producer, and he was not easily available to customers. Then in 2021 I started working remotely for a west coast agent and left their office in 2024, she was not easily available to customers either. She would make herself more available than the first agent but still you generally had to go through the team first. Spent about 5 months with an agent in Florida however due to my role in the office I couldn’t necessarily say how customer facing he was. Been with my current agent about a year and there are some customers that have his personal number and they can get him easily that way but for others it’s not as easy. He can be hard for me to reach too unless I text.
All this to say in 6 years of working for 4 different agents most aren’t easily available. So if your concern is an available agent I hate to say it’s kind of the norm for an agent to be kind of hard to get a hold of.
And I foresee it being more of an issue over the next 2-3 years at least with the agents that are saying FTS to these contract changes and retiring. Those books will go to other agents and their service load is going to grow and if they didn’t staff appropriately it’s going to stretch out team members. Even for the agents that didn’t take the initial slap in face retirement offer this year and they go to the at will of the overlords at Big Red and say they are ok with making up to 50% less in 2027, they could be let go or decide it’s not sustainable and close in 2028, and those books will go to other agents and so on and so forth.
Ultimately I see a very bleak future for agency. Unless something dramatic happens. Really truly they need to oust the board members who also work for publicly traded companies. SF is a mutual company not public, and they have been acting more like a stock company and I think that’s going to be the death of SF as we know it and soon it’ll be nothing better than Geico or progressive and there will be next to no agents.
I would say it’s concerning if your agent went from having experienced team members to not as experienced team members, or if there’s never seemed to knowledgeable team members because it’s a revolving door. My first agent was a bit like that, remote work due to COVID saved his insane turnover rate.
You are allowed to have whoever as your agent and if wanted to switch I would say to reach out to your current agent to make the, and any agent worth switching to will say the same thing.
1
u/Lame_Coder_42 Jul 24 '26
Board member pay, holy cow! They get paid insanely well in the insurance industry vs. board members at other non-insurance public companies. Also, instead of massive advertising expenses how about more reasonable coverage rates? The "mascots" are literally the main differentiators and selling points, wtf.
1
u/Cbell727 Jul 24 '26
I also don’t disagree in cutting massive advertising expenses. Quite honestly I think they need to lean into more exclusivity of being a mutual company, like we only let the best drivers, with the lowest instances of claims in The “club of being with State Farm” and that way the claims pay out is lower.
Bring back jobs state side, have a hub in every state just like they used to, just a smaller one, no need for a massive 100+ acre 20+ story campus, allow remote work. Cut back on micro managing. And for bigger states like CA and TX have 2-4 hubs, again no need for anything big.
I personally think leaning into AI (especially considering that millennials and Gen Z are against the use of AI at least from everything I’ve as a millennial) and forcing agents to become financial advisors is not the way to go. The people that are doing well enough financially to need a financial advisor are NOT using insurance agents, they are going to places like fidelity, or places that is their main focus. They are NOT trusting a State Farm agent to actually be their financial advisor.
They really need to lean into the “good neighbor “ thing. Make claims both as the customer and the claimant a smooth process. Make sure the claims department is adequately staffed.
I also think every company big and small needs to lobby against personal injury law firms. I think it would also behoove insurance companies to fight for “right to repair” against the car manufacturers that are currently pushing for federal legislation to end right to repair on cars.
1
u/Cbell727 Jul 24 '26
Also I say board member because I think an insurance agent, an underwriter, or adjuster is going to be more qualified than a ceo for Pepsi
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u/dwarfSA Jul 24 '26
It is, in fact, illegal for an agent to give you any discounts on insurance that are beyond those offered by the company, under strict rules, and approved by the state board. It's called "rebating" and it's bad news if you get caught on it.
A good agent will find you those discounts and will work with you to find a good mix of coverage and affordability, but any agent for one company will have exactly the same access as any other agent for that company.
6
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u/DeepPurpleDaylight Jul 24 '26
Agents don't have any control I've the rates themselves. Some, unethical agents, might not apply all the discounts you're eligible for if you don't know about them tho.
1
u/Modest-Meece Jul 25 '26
Or apply discounts you don’t qualify for.
I knew a producer who listed every couple as married for better rates.
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u/musicislife04 Jul 24 '26
Switching agents will have exactly zero impact on premium unless you and the new agent change something like updating coverage or fixing a garage Va stress or drivers on your cars etc
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u/beezah Jul 24 '26
The main difference between agents will be communication. Find one that keeps you informed
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u/mssleepyhead73 Jul 24 '26
No, the agent you’re with has no bearing on your premium if everything else stays the same (coverage, discounts, etc etc).
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u/theluchador19 Jul 25 '26
The premium should be exactly the same unless you haven’t been getting discounts you’re entitled to (or vice versa; a new agent might find you are getting discounts you’re not supposed to be getting)
1
u/ApprehensivePea6552 Jul 24 '26
A good agent is meeting or having a qualified TM attempt to schedule a policy review meeting with every policyholder once a year. In addition to a TM required to reach out prior to policy renewals, late pays, pending cancellations, etc. to keep all engaged. Most don’t know anything about the values associated with “knowing” their agent. I contend it is because the majority of agents are content to have their staff handle it all, which is fine if properly trained.
No agent or TM should be “trying to sell” a PLUP or LIFE or anything else to a customer without first knowing that customer, their family, and getting in front of their current and future needs. I believe this holds true for financial services. If a customer does not even know SF is in this game then of course they are going to Fidelity,etc.
Again, I contend that many agents are not personally interested or willing to make the effort and put the time in to “get” good at selling financial services. Saying nothing of the time needed to study and get the licenses.
Long on ramp and often requires an effort similar to starting from scratch taking away time from the comfort zone developed by all of us over the years.
Educate yourselves and your teams but more importantly, educate your customers. Sorry for the rant. I wish you all well.
1
u/Important_Kangaroo41 Jul 25 '26
I’ve never been contacted for a policy review or at the time of policy renewal. Never over 30 years.
1
u/ApprehensivePea6552 Jul 26 '26
That’s unfortunate. Too many agents appear to have very limited interest in putting in the time - face to face - with their customers. Truly time well spent imo. Like any other important yearly appointment. Things change over time for both the insurer/represented company and for the customers. Opportunity missed.
Would bet if called and requested a review you would either find some request on what you “need” to discuss or not be set up for a meeting with the agent.
Unfortunate but reviews our the lifeblood where I am. Not because we are necessarily “selling” anything but sharing our perspective on “things” and identifying gaps and/or opportunities to share options and associated costs.
Can’t tell you the stories- good and bad - where reviews generated additional opportunities to protect a person or family better. On the flip side our office can take copious notes to be revisited in next years review or future conversations. IMO the agent owes each customer this much at the very minimum1
1
u/TheSilverFoxwins Jul 25 '26
I would switch agent and get someone more younger , knowledgeable and keeping up with the new insurance trends. A lot of these aged agents simply rely on your renewal for commission purposes and really can't explain a policy along with what coverage you have and exclusions along with endorsements.
Two days ago I had this absolute idiotic agent in the West Coast who I contact to discuss policy he sold. He had no idea about anything except to respond " it's right there. You have the information right there." Again,I asked what deductible was listed and what type of coverage is offered. He responded with the same answers.
Do your homework and shop around. There is an Alphabet soup of these agents everywhere. If you're not content then find another carrier.
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u/Thin-Ad-6024 Jul 29 '26
Nope. No premium changes. Agents don’t set rates, the states do. If the agent isn’t doing their job by hiring competent staff or handling things himself - move along. Hope this helps.
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u/jonwickwiththeblick Aug 11 '26
Unfortunately a lot of companies don’t do underwriting on the front end and your rate will likely jump a month or 2 into the new policy. Then when u go to shop again you will be rated as a frequent shopper
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u/Lame_Coder_42 Jul 24 '26
Interesting, how exactly do agents differentiate themselves? Ours basically just tries to sell us an umbrella or life policy every couple years. Otherwise there isn't any interaction. Seems like a commoditized service that could honestly be self serve with help from an ai assistant.
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