Business owners have a lot of things on their plate to keep their business growing. Property, liability, workers comprehension and other forms of insurance are needed which can get costly and confusing if you try to navigate the sometimes murky waters of business insurance on your own. It helps to have a trusted insurance broker who can assist in making the right choices and act as a middle man when purchasing and maintaining important insurance policies for your business.

Insurance agent or broker?

There are differences between agents and brokers. The main thing that separates the two are the fact that agents work for a specific insurance company while a broker generally works independently with no specific insurance company that they are required to do business with. The difference gets harder to determine when people act as both an agent and a broker which can occur based on your needs and the insurance companies that are involved.

There are pros and cons of working with either an independent broker or an insurance agent. An independent broker may not have the same access to certain information as an insurance agent however in most cases the broker is working to find you the most competitive rate. That being said an insurance agent will only be able to offer information about the specific company that he/she represents but will have total access and possibly better information about the insurance company and policies, including pricing information.

Agent experience is important.

When it comes to selecting an insurance agent or broker- experience and expertise is important. While it is possible for a laymen to get a solid understanding of insurance policies, having an experienced representative working for you should make decisions much easier. Insurance requirements and policy information can quickly get confusing. The goal is to make sure you are adequately covered without paying too much money. When selecting an agent or broker make sure they have the knowledge to act on your behalf.

Making the decision.

If a candidate is interested in providing agent or broker services for your company they should be willing to make a presentation explaining their services and qualifications. You should be looking for the following:

• Compatibility of the business

• Level of commitment

• How the agent or broker will solve your insurance problems

• Why they are the right person for you and your company (why are they better than the competition?)

You may want to establish a review period when working with a new agent or broker to ensure the relationship is working out as anticipated.

 

 

 

 

Tags: business insurance, insurance agent, insurance broker

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 9:34 am and is filed under insurance careers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.