The Grouchy Insurance Guy, "Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets"...Henry Ford

“Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets”…Henry Ford

Dawn is just breaking….I can see the light beyond the darkness and in 15 minutes all will be bright…another 40 degree day in February…. some suggest it’s global warming..but I got to thinking about that…. two years ago we had a terribly cold winter…and the year before that.. we had a ton of snow and cold… no one blamed it on global freezing… and when we set new records by 1 or 2 degrees… doesn’t that mean that it was at least almost this warm 100 years ago or whenever the last record was set?….. so much for opinions… we all surely have them…

Business has come to a slow crawl….new business that is…so I got to thinking about that as well…. More self analysis forces me to recognize business is bustling..I’m the one that’s coming to a slow crawl…I have to wake up from the winter doldrums and get back to my old self….I recall during the last recession when J. Carter was President.. Gasoline was going to $1.00 per gallon and my father was furious..even a staunch old democrat union guy was fed up…. we were counseled not to “participate” in the recession by our sales manager. Just a bit of motivational BS you say?… Well, I have come to believe it….if you think it and say it enough, it becomes fact…

I know one thing for certain…activity breeds results…and lack of activity breeds more of the same…..minimal results..so wake up Grouchy…..

I have to meet with a Company Guy today..actually a company gal… very nice woman… About five years ago, they were the hottest company in town…. they priced their insurance aggressively and helped agencies grow…and grow and prosper we did..then the other shoe dropped….you see, insurance is all about numbers…actuarial numbers….meaning… for every insurance risk out there…there is a “rate” you cannot go below and make a profit… some companies do it anyway to meet “growth” needs..

We commonly refer to that as “buying” a piece of the market… All the other carriers get frustrated and accuse the “buyer” of not knowing what they are doing…or other excuses….but they know exactly what they’re doing..they are establishing a base of business…knowingly (at some level in the company) that they are going to sustain more loss than premium… well, the chicken’s have come home to roost so to speak…

Now my carrier has too many losses to support the premium…so they are now taking aggressive action so that the base of business they “bought” over the last five years makes them an underwriting profit…that’s when premiums exceed loss and expense..and that my friends is where WE come in…see, we are the agents that gave them all that business…. ahhhhh, they were great times….taking candy from babies…writing new accounts left and right…but now….

We lose accounts or they overprice the accounts they have because the actuaries really did know what they’re talking about… so the hottest market in town is now cooled off considerably…meanwhile, they expect the agent to continue to roll the business on the books….and that is the problem.. so we’ll have a nice chat today and find out where we stand…..

Happy Birthday “Idea Guy” and Happy Anniversary “Good Guy”….

Predictably, dawn has come and off I go….action is the word of the day….