I am disappointed not to have gotten a livelier response to my post yesterday about a leading independent agent association official blasting big brokers who are whining over the loss of their contingency fees! I assumed agents would be venting like crazy over this, and perhaps a broker or two might step up to the plate to hammer the bifurcated compensation system in place among producers today. Credit scoring, natural catastrophe coverage, even Ernie Csiszar's shocking split from PCI drew a host of thoughtful comments, but no dice on producer compensation--one of the biggest controversies to hit the industry in recent years! Here's your last chance to weigh in before I change topics Wednesday morning.
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Last Chance To Talk Back On Broker Fees!
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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on September 26, 2006 4:00 PM.
The previous post in this blog was Brokers Slammed For 'Chutzpah' On Fees.
The next post in this blog is Don't Show Me The Money, Spitzer Says.
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Comments (2)
We shouldn't be defending the convoluted insurance company compensation plans.
I agree that agents should be rewarded for good performance. I also agree that the 99 percent of agents who didn't abuse the system shouldn't be penalized by the handful of those who did.
I can't, however, defend the compensation plans that the insurance companies have forced on us.
The arbitrary thresholds of written premium, new business, retention or mix of business can easily be interpreted by our customers to be a conflict of interest.
We should reject these compensation plans because they are bad for our industry, not because they are illegal.
Unfortunately the few agencies/brokerages that have the market power to initiate changes to the compensation plans have used their position badly.
We should demand compensation plans that pay us fairly and that rewards outstanding performance, but is also straightforward enough to be easily disclosed to our customers without the slightest appearance of a conflict of interest.
Posted by Jim Herlihy, Cheshire CT | September 26, 2006 10:39 PM
Posted on September 26, 2006 22:39
Having been an agent/broker for more than 50 years, and not enjoying the business as much as I did several years ago, I was MOST delighted that within ONE week, three great items appeared in the insurance trade press, that I was most pleased with.
First, someone representing a leading independent agent association spoke out against those that created the problem and attempted to see that those who were not involved should be punished.
Then we have the two largest national producer associations (PIA and IIABA) filing papers in U.S.District Court objecting to what I would state are illegal coercion practices being done by attorneys general in several states.
Posted by Stuart Fries | September 27, 2006 3:49 PM
Posted on September 27, 2006 15:49