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Alive and Well: Reports of the Death of the Independent Agent Were Greatly Exaggerated
When I began my career as a journalist covering the insurance industry back in 1981, many of my early stories reported on dire warnings in a series of studies and expert pronouncements predicting the ...
Captive vs. Independent Agents: Carriers Are Committed to Multiple, Evolving Distribution Channels
Despite the grim outlook forecasted for U.S. agents in a 2013 report by McKinsey & Company, both captive and independent agents remain a viable segment of carrier distribution channels. Even with ...
The Future of Small Business Insurance Distribution: What Can We Expect?
In the United States today, there are almost 28 million small businesses, all requiring a wide array of insurance coverage to confidently conduct daily business. Insuring these businesses has always ...
Machine Learning From the Insurance Trenches
There has never been a book that changed my world view like "The World Is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. I was in my early 20s, and the book helped me realize I was competing with other workers throughout ...
Advanced Climate Analytics: New Approaches for Managing Risk
The increased availability of real-time data, and improved processing power to cost-effectively collect, decipher and evaluate this information, is changing the face of many industry sectors. This ...
Broker CEO Perspective: The State of the Industry and Three Defining Trends for 2018
A tremendous amount of loss was experienced in 2017. From devastating hurricanes, raging wildfires and earthquakes to acts of terrorism, this past year has tested not only the insurance industry but ...
The Distribution Debate: There Will Be a Role for the Agent/Broker
In the 1990s, even when it took a slow dial-up connection and less sophisticated search engines to maneuver the information superhighway, there was discussion of how the Internet could impact future ...
Become a Carrier of Choice for Agents: Five Reasons to Join ID Federation
It's the bane of the modern-day insurance office: keeping track of the many passwords required to log into a myriad of systems and websites. Whenever I talk to anyone in our industry about real-time ...