In the next few years, you'll probably be devoting more time and resources to Life and Health insurance products - that is, if you're at all like the estimated 2,000 independent agents who participated in the "Future One Agency Universe Study."

The study shows that independent agents are increasingly aware of the need to be full-service insurance providers. Agents who have traditionally focused on Property/Casualty insurance see the need to expand more aggressively into Life and other types of insurance products. In fact, slightly more than half the agencies surveyed said that over the next three years, they'll devote a higher proportion of agency resources to Life and Health products.

ONLINE INVOICES GET PAID TWICE AS FAST by Steve Anderson Web-based invoices that give recipients the option to pay online result in payments being made twice as fast as those that don...

Instead of hiring telemarketers to work within your agency just for you, you could choose to pay an outside vendor to provide telemarketing services. These...

OUTSOURCED CLAIMS MANAGEMENT ONE WAY FOR AGENCIES AND CARRIERS TO REDUCE COSTS AND IMPROVE SERVICE by Paul Di Stefano and G. Edward Kalbaugh Within most agencies and insurance companies, cla...

All producers know that overcoming objections is part of the selling process. However, many forget that making objections is just as intrinsic to the buying process.

To identify the root causes of objections, producers should put themselves into the buyer's shoes. You also buy in your personal life, so use your own experiences to sharpen your expertise.

Though faced with the realities of dramatic economic change, the reconfiguration of the business landscape, and globalization, U.S. companies continue to go down the wrong path. Former U.S. Treasury Department official Michael Jacobs calls it "business myopia."

It may be argued that "enhancing shareholder value" drives the myopic vision of publicly-traded companies, but "shareholder demand" is perhaps more accurate. In privately held companies, myopic thinking results from a desire to increase market share or simply beat last month's figures.

PARTNERING WITH CARRIERS by Al Diamond Trust between you and your carriers must be a two-way street. Agencies have given carriers as many reasons to distrust their commitments ...

PERSONAL HOMEOWNERS PROPOSAL by Jack Fries For: ...

PERSONAL LINES RECORDS INCREASE REVENUE! by Grace Bauer People don't pay much attention to Personal Lines when it comes to account rounding, the yearly renewal review, and new busin...

PERSONAL LINES REVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE DWELLING: Coverage Needs H...