When trying to solve the question of motivation, a detective may often resort to this time-tested advice: “Follow the money.” The implication? Well, if you know where the money came from, you can begin to understand why people do what they do.
When trying to find the right insurance agent, we’d suggest you go the same route: investigate the motivation behind a product or coverage recommendation. Basically, follow the money.
Ask yourself:
Who does my agent work for?
How is my agent compensated?
How does compensation affect my agent’s behavior?
Case in point: Any local agent who carries the flag of a lone insurance company. The agent may be a good neighbor, but the long and short of things are that this agent is employed by the insurance company, not customers. So when you have a problem, concern, or maybe even a dispute, what happens? The agent picks up the company phone, gets the company answer, and tows the party line. To be clear, we aren’t bad-mouthing the agent—that’s just how things work when you’re tied to one company. It’s also a huge reason to go independent.
Independent agents look for customers to hire them and can in turn find an insurance company that best fits their clients’ needs. So when there’s a problem, concern, or dispute, your local independent agent is your advocate. Again, that’s because you—not an insurance company—have hired this agent.
The detective was right: follow the money. You’ll find that a good bit of the agents out there who claim to be working for you are really working for an insurance company. In contrast, independent agents are employed by customers and work with them to custom-fit a policy and company to their insurance needs. You decide: Which agent would best represent you?
