Agency Operations

An agency recently was hit by a $38,000 claim under an E&O policy with a $25,000 deductible. Now the agency owners want the deductible to be paid by the producer,…

Your agency services an area subject to catastrophes. Is it the responsibility of your insureds to contact you if they want quotes/coverage for excluded perils (e.g., flood and earthquake) or are you responsible to contact…

Making mid-term policy changes is a normal part of the insurance agency business. In fact, it is so routine that there is a danger of making ordinary, perfunctory policy changes…

When a small, uncovered first-party loss is less than an agency’s E&O deductible, there is a temptation to pay the claim directly out of the agency’s own funds, without ever…

An agent asks, “With the advent of download from the carrier websites directly into our agency management system, do we need to check the renewal policy for accuracy? We are…

An insured accepts a premium quote and coverage is bound. Later, it’s determined that a rating error occurred. The insurer then bills the insured for the corrected premium. Since the…

An agency put together a list of “disclaimers” they were considering having insureds sign and asked for input on the concept. The general consensus was that disclaimers are sometimes warranted…

A decision agency owners or managers sometimes face is how to “fire” a customer. Some customers frankly are more trouble than they’re worth. Some demand too much service in relation…

From time to time, agents may be asked to make policy changes at the request of someone other than a named insured. Most often this involves calls from auto dealerships…

The line of insurance with proportionately the highest incidence of E&O claims is CGL coverage. This is probably not surprising given the broad use of this liability coverage, the complexity…