When Greg Daniel launched Armor Insurance Group, he already had years of experience and a decent book of business under his belt. Nevertheless, insurance network support proved instrumental in accessing more carriers, taking on more commercial business and supercharging his agency’s growth.
Easing into the Independent Model
Greg began his insurance career as a claims adjuster with Progressive Insurance. After seven years of working in claims, he opened a captive insurance agency. He ran that agency for two decades before opening Armor Insurance with his business partner John Williams.
“There was a lot of good training,” Greg says about his time as a captive insurance agent, explaining that he gained valuable experience with carriers, underwriters and the insurance business in general. He learned the value of meeting an entire household’s needs, rather than selling one policy to one person, and that’s helped him as an independent insurance agent, too.
Although the switch from captive to independent can be daunting, Greg eased into it. “We always had other companies on the side where we could place business that our primary carrier couldn’t write,” he explains. Over time, this business grew and served as the springboard that launched their move to the independent model.
It was a smart decision. “In roughly four years, as a full-on independent agent, I made as much money as a captive agent would make in 20 years” Greg says, estimating that he had about $2 to $2.5 million in premium when he left his captive insurance agency in 2017.
Now he has more than $8 million in written premium. His agency is growing at a much faster pace now, and he believes it’s because he has access to more carriers and markets, and that allows him to help more clients. “You have more options, and a bigger net to catch more fish,” he explains.
A Partnership That Makes Sense
To cast as wide a net as possible, Greg knew he needed to join a network that could provide carrier access. There are roughly 150 insurance networks in the U.S., so he had many choices. Upon further exploration, he noticed some compelling differences.
The way networks approached commissions was a significant factor. Smart Choice offers a 70-30 commission split, which may not look attractive at first since some networks offer 80-20. However, as a large network, Smart Choice is able to negotiate higher commissions with many carriers, so that 30% can end up being 30% of a bigger pie.
Another key advantage is that Smart Choice doesn’t take commissions indefinitely.
“The commission split with Smart Choice is capped after you attain a certain level,” Greg says. “At that point, you earn 100% of the commissions. So, for that reason, Smart Choice was the better option for us.”
To sweeten the deal even more, Smart Choice provides agencies with a lucrative profit-sharing opportunity. Once again, Smart Choice’s size is a huge advantage.
The network’s profit sharing can sometimes involve hundreds of millions of dollars with carriers. Independent agencies typically couldn’t achieve this level of profit sharing on their own with direct contracts, but by working with Smart Choice, they enjoy the same level of return as the large network.
“I just knew it was a better option to go with Smart Choice,” Greg says.
“The commission split with Smart Choice is capped after you attain a certain level,”
–Greg Daniel
Accessing Carriers and Expanding into Commercial Lines
“We’re in a geographically challenged area, being that we’re coastal,” says Greg, whose agency is in Virginia. “So, it’s a little tougher for agencies, and especially independent agencies, to get appointments here.”
Smart Choice has helped him obtain carrier access that would have been out of his reach otherwise.
The Smart Start program for commercial lines has been especially important. When agencies can’t obtain direct appointments, they can sell through Smart Start. Once they hit a certain level of premium, Smart Choice asks for a code so the business can move from the Smart Start program to their direct code. In addition to being a pathway to direct access, it’s a great training program for agencies that are learning the ropes.
“That has been a godsend to us,” says Greg, explaining that he didn’t do much on the commercial side as a captive agent, so he didn’t know about it when he went independent.
The ease of the Smart Start program has also been useful as Greg and his agency have had to adjust to market changes. “We’ve had to make some adjustments with the housing market and everything going on, so our focus now is more so on commercial,” he says. With Smart Start, he just has to fill out a simple form. “The Smart Start people contact the customer directly so it kind of takes us out as the middleman, and it just saves us a ton of time and money.”
Beyond Carrier Access
While carrier access may have been his primary reason for signing up, it’s not the only advantage he’s received. Roger Gill, a Smart Choice state director, has helped Greg select the right technologies to help his agency run smoothly.
“We switched our website based on Roger’s recommendation.” The Forge website platform is offered by Agency Revolution, a Smart Choice partner, and it’s made exclusively for insurance agencies to help them build an online presence and generate leads.
More recently, Roger has been talking to Greg about Canopy Connect, another Smart Choice vendor relationship that allows agencies to collect verified insurance information in just seconds. “I think we’re going to move forward with it soon,” Greg says. He’s noticed that clients tend to send him screenshots via text instead of sending over the full declarations page, and it doesn’t provide all the information he needs. Canopy Connect should help solve that problem.
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