P R A D

chapter 9 Hiring Personal Lines Producers

For years independent agents and brokers have waged a battle against the direct writers, direct response carriers, and now big-box retailers like Walmart, to retain and grow their local personal lines market share. Many have already ceded the line of business to those channels. Although personal lines revenue provides the “bread and butter” for many smaller to mid-sized agencies, they often lack the resources, skills or resolve to stop the erosion of their books. In contrast, larger brokers often view personal lines as an accommodation, a minor source of revenue, and fail to exploit the positive impact it can have on agency value. But a growing number of agents and brokers, both large and small, understand the strategic importance of personal lines. They are taking a fresh look at the opportunity presented by personal lines to grow and enhance the value of their businesses and are hiring and developing personal lines producers to fight back and grow market share. In this study, we wanted to focus specifically on the personal lines producer, which is often a different dynamic than commercial lines or employee benefits. In our research and experience, there are two primary types of personal lines production. The first is personal lines producers that focus on high net worth clients . These producers are more similar to commercial lines producers, spending a majority of their efforts identifying, developing and selling new business. Their time generally is spent outside of the office meeting with prospects and networking with centers of influence such as financial planners, wealth managers, CPAs, private bankers, realtors, lawyers and others that can serve as a good source of referrals. The high net worth personal lines producer may exploit specialty knowledge or product expertise in order to drive new business. Further, the high net worth producer likely has minimal service responsibilities, focusing almost entirely on new business generation. The second type of personal lines production focuses on main street clients. These producers, who focus on smaller, general personal lines accounts, typically have different responsibilities and skill sets than producers who focus on high net worth clients. Main street personal lines producers are generally in-house producers. They are most successful when the firm is actively funneling referrals from internal sources (e.g., commercial lines and employee benefits producers, owners, other employees) and proactively driving business to the agency via advertising/marketing, social media, community involvement and other activities that provide good brand recognition to support the producer model. While the main street producer may occasionally make outside calls with commercial lines and employee benefits producers or network with strategic business relationships, they spend the majority of their time internally. Defining the Personal Lines Producer

51 Producer Recruiting & Development Study