Higgins Initiative Takes Hold AGENTS: LET'S GET IT 'OUT THERE' NOW.

AuthorHiggins, Ed
Position[GUEST FEATURE]

Ed Higgins of the Thousand Islands Agency has worn a lot of hats, almost all as a leader and advocate for independent agents, past President of Big I New York, an instructor and author of bright ideas for agents seeking to sustain their businesses, grow them and prosper--as independent agencies are suited to do. Ed has written to us to gain support for an idea that is coming of age again here in New York. We present his argument here and thank him for his continued service to the insurance business in New York

* For many years as an independent agent, I have focused on the unique value-added premises independent insurance agents operate upon and have taught many peers how to maximize those same market advantages in programs on how agents can create unique value. That value is there, but it is not "out there" as it should be.

In fact, over the past several years I have watched insurance agency and carrier advertising degenerate into four marketing distinctions as purchasing criteria, begging the insurance consumer to make their choice of an insurance product based upon: easier, faster, cheaper and better.

Insurance professionals know that none of these should be the basis of an insurance purchasing decision any more than it should be the basis of selecting a doctor--except for "better." Independent agents can easily compete and win on this criterion. As we know all too well, the best example is that of many non-standard policy coverage provisions implemented by some carriers to reduce the risk transferred in a policy of insurance, whereby the price is reduced, but the consumer never knows exactly what they have purchased until it is too late. We should be able to rely upon regulators to protect insurance consumers from misleading advertising and ultra-fine print, but it is the agent who gets the consumer through the night with a sound sleep.

To respond to these new criteria, I have worked to bring together some technically knowledgeable industry experts and we have created the attached position statement document to begin the discussion with state regulators throughout the country asking them to revisit their responsibility to protect the consumer from unfair and incomplete advertisements and inferior policy coverage provisions. We spent five months and multiple revisions developing this position statement to be sure we remained consumer focused and not distribution channel biased. Anything that benefits the insurance consumer has an...

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