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Posted By Kim Fiene,
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
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Happy Wednesday! In this week's Big I Buzz: Five ways to prepare for the end of the hard market, plus tips for overcoming hesitancy in life insurance sales.
5 Ways to Prepare for the End of the Hard Market For quite some time, the hard market has made it challenging for agents to secure affordable coverage for their clients—when coverage was even available. Now, there are signs that conditions are improving. With the market shifting, insurance agencies should focus on positioning themselves for long-term success. The steps taken today will play a key role in how well they navigate the soft market cycle that lies ahead. Read more here.
Overcoming ‘I Need to Think About It’ in Life Insurance Sales Few things frustrate salespeople more than hearing, “I need to think about it.” For many life insurance agents—especially those who are new or part-time—this is one of the toughest objections to overcome. In some ways, it can feel even worse than a flat-out “I’m not interested” because at least then, you know where you stand. A successful sales call should build momentum, much like a snowball rolling down a mountain—starting small, gaining speed, and becoming unstoppable. But if that snowball isn’t packed tightly from the start, it’s more likely to crumble along the way. Learn how you can set yourself up for success from the very beginning of your sales presentation. Read more here.
For more news, check out the Action News section of our weekly e-newsletter, Big I Buzz. If you aren’t subscribed, click here to add your email to our emailing list.
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Posted By Kaylyn Staudt,
Friday, November 5, 2021
Updated: Wednesday, December 1, 2021
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Brad Reitzner, M3 Insurance - Q. What do you hope to accomplish while on the IIAW Board of Directors? A. I will be an advocate for the independent agent model and grow the industry with the next generation. Q. What do you currently see as the biggest challenge and opportunity facing the IA channel currently or in the future? A. Consolidation in the IA channel along with clients post-COVID looking for advisors and more data-driven solutions is a challenge, but also one of the greatest opportunities. Q. Any life advice or favorite quote? A. Work hard, play hard. Q. A book you recommend people read? A. “Outliers: A Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell Q. A non-insurance prediction for 2021-2022? A. People will start traveling internationally again. ----------------------------------- Matt Frank, Robertson Ryan & Associates - Q. Tell us a little about yourself A. I’m coming up on my 10th year in the industry. Time flies! For the past five years, I have worked as an insurance advisor at Robertson Ryan & Associates. Prior to that, I was a commercial underwriter at Liberty Mutual. When I’m not thinking about insurance, I enjoy spending time with my wife, Susie.
Q. What do you hope to accomplish while on the IIAW Board of Directors? A. I’m excited about the opportunity to continue to network with my peers along with growing as a professional. Being a part of the Big I has already been extremely beneficial towards my development. It really is a great place to meet peers and to learn what’s going on throughout the industry. Q. What do you currently see as the biggest challenge and opportunity facing the IA channel currently or in the future? A. In my opinion, the biggest opportunity for the IA channel involves the implementation of technology and digitalization. To be specific, how do we evolve as an industry so that we can stay connected with our clients especially future generations. Q. Any life advice or favorite quote? A. Never get too high or too low. This is especially important for those in sales. Q. A book you recommend people read? A. If you are interested in Milwaukee and its history, “The Making of Milwaukee” by John Gurda is great. Q. A non-insurance prediction for 2021-2022? A. Bucks will win another championship - back to back! Welcome to the IIAW board! We are excited for the year ahead.
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Posted By IIAW Staff,
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
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Happy Wednesday! In this week's Big I Buzz, we are discussing today's ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court, we are announcing tech solution, Catalyit, and the behavioral changes to driving during the pandemic.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Strikes Down Statewide Mask Mandate
Today (Wednesday, March 31st), the Wisconsin Supreme Court blocked Gov. Tony Evers from issuing any new public health emergency orders to mandate face masks without the approval of the Wisconsin Legislature. The statewide mask mandate was set to expire
on Monday, but now ends immediately following the ruling. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau told Wisconsin lawmakers in January that the state's FoodShare program could lose its extra funding of
about $50 million a month if the state's emergency were extended." Read more here.
Introducing Catalyit!
The IIAW is proud to announce tech solution, Catalyit! Catalyit is simplifying technology for insurance agencies. The number of ways that you can leverage tech to increase profits and serve customers is nearly unlimited. Catalyit offers tools, guides
& reviews, community, training and consulting to give you all the agency tech guidance you need in one place. Learn more about Catalyit by heading to their website www.catalyit.com. If you sign up
for their email list, you'll receive their Top 10 Tech Tips today, and you'll be the first to hear when their free assessment is available.
Catalyit is launching in June 2021! Click here for more details.
Distracted Driving Behaviors Increased During Pandemic
According to Insurance Journal, one in four drivers think that roads are safer today than they were before the pandemic, yet a growing number of drivers are texting or emailing while driving - in part as more of them feel pressured to be available for
their jobs wherever they are."
A national survey of more than 1,000 consumers and business managers was conducted for the 2021 Travelers Risk Index on distracted driving. Respondents reported on their dangerous driving behaviors including:
• Texting or emailing (26%, up from 19% pre-pandemic)
• Checking social media (20%, up from 13% pre-pandemic)
• Taking videos and photos (19%, up from 10% pre-pandemic)
• Shopping online (17%, up from 8% pre-pandemic)
Travelers reported that such driving behaviors may have contributed in part to more hazardous road. According to the National Safety Council, "Motor vehicle deaths were up 8% in 2020 from 2019 - the highest percentage increase in 13 years." Read more
about the findings from the 2021 Travelers Risk Index here.
For more news, check out the Action news section of our weekly e-newsletter, Big I Buzz. If you aren’t subscribed, click here to add your email to our emailing list. Don’t forget you can stay up-to-date on other industry news as its happening on our Online Community. You can join the Online Community (exclusive to IIAW members)
here. We hope that everyone has a great rest of their week.
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Posted By IIAW Staff,
Friday, September 18, 2020
Updated: Monday, September 14, 2020
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By: Godfrey & Kahn Updates
This article was originally published in our September Wisconsin Independent Agent. Read more from our September issue here.
Insurers issuing auto coverage in Wisconsin may want to double check their policies after the court of appeals’ recent decision in Brey v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 2020 WL 3455880 (Wis. Ct. App. June 25, 2019). There, the court found that the
state’s omnibus insurance statute requires carriers offering underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage to provide that coverage even when their insureds have not suffered any bodily injury themselves.
The facts of Brey were relatively straightforward. A father died in an automobile accident. His son sued to recover UIM benefits from State Farm, which insured him under a policy issued to his mother. The father was not insured under that policy,
as he did not live with the son and his mother. State Farm denied coverage because the policy’s UIM provisions required an insured
to suffer “bodily
injury” and the son (who was not involved in the crash) had not suffered any such injury. The son acknowledged those policy terms but argued that they were void and unenforceable because
Wisconsin law does not allow for UIM provisions that require bodily injury of an insured. The trial court sided with State Farm and dismissed the son’s claim. On appeal, however, the appellate court reversed, concluding that State Farm’s UIM terms
were impermissible under applicable Wisconsin statutes.
The case turned on Wis. Stat. § 632.32, a state statute that identifies the minimum coverage that all policies issued in the state must provide. Section 632.32(2)(d) addresses UIM coverage and states:
“Underinsured motorist coverage” means
coverage for the protection of persons
insured under that coverage who are
legally entitled to recover damages for
bodily injury, death, sickness, or disease
from owners or operators of uninsured
motor vehicles.”
According to the court of appeals, this statement unambiguously establishes that UIM provisions in Wisconsin must protect any person who meets three requirements: “(1) the person who makes the UIM claim must be an insured under the UIM coverage of
the policy; (2) that person must be legally entitled to recover damages for bodily injury or death; and (3) that person must be legally entitled to recover from an owner or operator of an underinsured motor vehicle.” 2020 WL 3455880, at ¶ 22.
Because Wis. Stat. § 632.32(2)(d) says nothing about the insured having to sustain bodily injury or death to access UIM benefits, insurance policies issued in the state are not allowed to include that requirement. Id.
State Farm raised a host of other arguments,contending that: the son’s reading of the statute was absurd; that prior Wisconsin case law dictated a result in State Farm’s favor; and that decisions from other jurisdictions suggested State Farm was correct. The appellate court quickly rejected all these arguments, reiterating that the statutory language was unambiguous.
The decision is a good reminder to insurers that, at least in Wisconsin, unambiguous policy language is not always the end of the coverage inquiry.Wisconsin’s omnibus insurance statute always serves as a backdrop to any coverage dispute and can lead to a victory for the insured even when the terms of the policy clearly do not afford coverage. Insurers facing such arguments should seek
counsel experienced with the omnibus statute to help them avoid trouble.
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Posted By IIAW Staff,
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
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2020 has become the year of the remote worker, courtesy of the coronavirus pandemic. Is your business one of the many that has transitioned to remote operations? Have you considered how that change affects your insurance liabilities as a business owner?
Your Trusted Choice Independent Insurance Agent® can help you reassess your risk picture. Managing a remote workforce may be new to you, but independent agents have rich expertise in helping business owners manage risk — whether employees work from home
or on-site. And because they represent multiple insurance companies, Trusted Choice agents can offer you and your business customized coverage based on your unique and changing needs.
In addition, your Trusted Choice agent can offer you resources and advice for developing your company’s remote work program. It should address, at a minimum:
1. Safety guidelines for a home office setup.
2. Designated work, break, and lunch times.
3. Safety training.
4. Physical inspections of remote workers’ home offices.
5. The workers’ compensation rules for your state as they apply to remote workers.
Here are a few insurance questions your Trusted Choice agent can help you answer:
Does my commercial general liability policy cover remote employees?
As part of your business insurance package, general liability protects your business against financial loss resulting from bodily injury, advertising injury, and property damage caused by your business or employees. Your Trusted Choice agent can review
your policy to be sure that you are still adequately covered while employing remote workers.
If your remote employee must meet business clients from home, it will be your commercial general liability policy that must cover any injury, not the employee’s homeowners insurance. Your agent may suggest additional coverages such as management liability
insurance to protect you and your workers from this and other risks not covered by your commercial general liability policy.
Business property insurance protects the physical location of your business and any tools, equipment and inventory. Your business property policy may exclude or limit the coverage for property that is not located at your business premises. Your agent
can help you determine if you need additional coverage for property used off-premises by remote workers.
An employee’s own homeowners policy usually will not cover the loss of business-owned equipment that is damaged or stolen in their home.
Are my remote workers covered by the workers’ compensation insurance my company purchases?
It is incumbent on you as an employer to ensure a safe working environment for your employees — whether they work at your business location or from their homes. In general, your workers’ compensation insurance covers all of your workers
for illness or injury arising out of or in the course of employment — no matter where they physically work.
However, ensuring a safe working environment for remote workers increases your responsibilities as an employer.
In addition, it is more difficult for a remote worker to demonstrate that an injury or illness “arises out of” or occurs “in the course of” employment — your telecommuting policies and procedures will be of critical importance. Will my cyber liability
insurance cover remote employees? The answer to that question is not simple because cyber policies vary greatly and may contain exclusions that would affect remote workers. And a remote worker using a public or a poorly secured home network could
put your entire business at risk and expose your customers’ private information. Your Trusted Choice agent can help you be sure you have appropriate cyber liability coverage. In addition, you must ensure that every device an employee uses is protected
from cyber breaches. First, require that employees use only your business-owned devices for work; second, set every employee up with a secure connection from their home office to your business network. You may have to engage the help of an IT specialist,
but the investment pales beside the potential costs of a cyberattack.
Let Trusted Choice help you keep your business and employees safe … anywhere they work.
For more help with your telecommuters, consult these articles:
Inspiring Productivity and Connection with Remote Workers
Ways to Keep Remote Workers Connected and Engaged
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Posted By IIAW Staff,
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Updated: Monday, June 29, 2020
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By: Larry Neilson, CEO | Neilson Marketing Services
As an agent, right now could be the best time ever to begin a marketing effort to organically grow your commercial lines book of business. We are just coming out of two to three months of the most monumental government shutdown of commerce in history. There are still disagreements over whether the recovery will be V, U, or L-shaped but early indicators from the airline and hospitality industries coupled with the most recent jobless-rate drop and payroll gains are encouraging.
Additionally, businesses receiving renewal notices are experiencing some of the biggest premium increases they have seen in years. The market is continuing to harden with a generation of producers who has never experienced this cycle before. They are going through the renewal process with a business-as-usual approach, not realizing these premium increases should be viewed as an invitation to ask prospects to seek an alternative. How do we know? For one thing, we are seeing among our own agency clients a considerable uptick in lead conversions as a result of today’s market.
Many agents, however, are wary of getting started too soon and have more of a “let’s wait and see what happens” point of view, regardless of the hard market opportunity. But while those agents wait, the larger brokers are moving to get started with their marketing plans that include a multi-prong strategy.
Upping the Marketing Game
Multi-modality marketing encompasses digital marketing, demand-generation marketing, and social media. It all begins with your brand and website, which should be carefully analyzed to determine if the site is doing what you need it to do:
• Does your website truly reflect your brand, tell your story – what distinguishes you in the marketplace, why and how can you make a difference in a client’s insurance protection?
• Is your website optimized properly so that you can be found by people who don’t necessarily know your name?
• Is your site properly programmed/coded to provide an enriched user experience across all devices, particularly because mobile devices now account for nearly 57% of Internet traffic?
• Is your site ADA-compliant?
• Are your social media channels set up to thematically align with your website and brand?
• Do you have an organized purposeful content and link-building plan in place? Are you regularly blogging, producing white papers (on why the hard market exists and what it means to business owners, for example), case studies (successful placement of tough accounts), and other share your expertise and thought leadership, especially salient in challenging times?
Once your website and social media platforms are thoroughly reviewed and you have made the necessary changes, which may involve anything from implementing minor adjustments to a total site revamp, the next step is to leverage available data. Identify your prospect base by class of business, minimum employee size and geographic boundaries. Append as much data as you can, including multiple C-suite contacts with emails, phone numbers, and workers compensation X-dates if they are available in your state, to begin prospecting.
Set up a demand-generation email program. This involves creating an email-funnel strategy to attract, engage and convert prospects to customers. An email funnel will help you get your potential
customers from point A to B, step-by-step, and influence them along the way toward your conversion goal. One you have your strategy in place, design, write and launch the campaign.
Boost your campaign with outbound calling. Using a demand-generation marketing platform that utilizes content and reciprocity to create a funnel in conjunction with outbound calling is a way to increase the likelihood of connecting with prospects and obtaining greater conversions.
A good demand-generation software program uses touch points to score leads as they move through the top of the sales funnel from list to leads, qualified leads, and closes. Leads that score over a certain number can be contacted by phone to set up an appointment either virtually or face-to-face. Knowing who to call reduces cold call labor considerably and improves lead quality. Simultaneously, a beacon (which provides on-demand FAQs, chat, and an email contact rolled into one helpful widget) on your website tracks visitors, and banner ads can be used to target them on LinkedIn. Some of the top software provides include HubSpot, Pardot, SharpSpring, Marketo, and Act-On.
During this hard market it’s important to get ahead of renewals well in advance for an opportunity to provide potential clients with options in terms of pricing, coverage terms, and capacity. The combination of a
well-optimized website, consistent content (blogs and social media posts), a demand-generation email effort and telemarketing outreach will help you build your brand and develop a consistent lead flow to gain new customers in this market cycle.
Larry Neilson is CEO, Neilson Marketing Services, an insurance marketing firm founded in 1988, and provide more than 5,000 professionals with data, outbound, digital, SEO, content, social media and email services.
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Posted By IIAW Staff,
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Updated: Monday, June 22, 2020
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As I sat tasked with the responsibility to write an article for our Membership Edition of the Wisconsin Independent Agent, I was trying to determine how I wanted to portray an IIAW membership. Like any mediocre writer, I started with what I know. I know that I love my job and the support we provide our members. I know that there are members who we need to connect with more. And I know there are independent agents who would find value in our organization and we have yet to connect with.
And I know baseball.
Across the nation, people young and old are stepping back up to the plate. Not just the actual home plate on the baseball field, but the metaphoric plate of life.
The Independent Insurance Agents of Wisconsin resembles a baseball team - a really strong one that has been around for a long time.
We have the front office. A team of dedicated professionals who are on the clock 24/7 making sure that the Association is up-to-date on the latest news, changes and information. That we are making the trip to the capital building when there needs to be a voice on the floor. That we are showing up to the games and practices and listening to what the players want. And that we never leave someone behind or feeling like they don’t have somewhere to turn for help.
“Surround yourself with people who will leap out of the dugout should you ever charge the mound.”
We have dedicated companies, brokers and vendors. The non-agency members who show their support for the independent agencies channel do so by being part of our committees, by attending our events and by financially supporting the IIAW. We would not be as strong as we are today without those vital organizations.
“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual starts in the world, but if they don’t play together the club won’t be worth a dime.”
- Babe Ruth
The team of independent insurance agents who represent the IIAW is a team I couldn’t be prouder of.
When crisis hit, agents came together to learn from one another and show support.
I see this continuing in the future so that everyone can grow and experience success. The IIAW may have created the club, but it is the players who have made it great. Utilizing the tools and resources made available to them has allowed agencies to focus on their business and show the value of an independent agent.
Character isn’t defined by the moments when you’re up 3-0, but instead by how you battle when you’re
down 0-2.
The IIAW battled and will continue to battle no matter what pitch is thrown to us. At the end of the day, our passion and dedication for the independent agency channel drives everything we do. We promise to continue to find new ways to support the independent agent. We will work with our supporting company members to drive innovative solutions and offer them at little-to-no-cost to our members.
Thank you for believing in us and being part of the team. Let’s root for each other and see how we all grow.
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Posted By Independent Insurance Agents of Wisconsin,
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
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Our Comeback will be Stronger than this Setback
"Coming together is a beginning, Staying together is progress, and Working together is success" -Henry Ford
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