5 Action Steps to Make the Most of Your Smart Choice® Membership

1. Sign up for Smart Start™

Smart Start™ is an internal brokerage within Smart Choice® that’s available to all Smart Choice® agents. There is a Smart Start™ program for personal lines business and another for commercial lines business. Each program gives you access to approximately eight national carriers.

Writing business through Smart Start™ is a great way to start building relationships with carriers and learn how to write complete and accurate quotes. While you do not have your own appointment with Smart Start™ carriers while using the program, the goal is for you to write enough business that a direct appointment becomes possible.

2. Get Appointed with Express Markets™ Carriers

Want to write standard and non-standard business with more than a dozen carriers without paying fees, splitting commissions, or meeting arbitrary production requirements? Then the Express Markets™ program is a great opportunity for you.

This program gives your agency nearly instant access to multiple markets, from straightforward personal lines policies to flood and excess and surplus lines. Many Express Markets™ carriers are brokers, which opens up dozens more carriers for your agency.

3. Create a Plan to Achieve Leadership Status

Every Smart Choice® agent should strive to achieve leadership status. Once you hit the leadership cap for the year ($67,000 in split commissions), you earn 100 percent commission on all business your agency writes, no matter how large your agency becomes through your Smart Choice™ membership. Smart Choice® also shares all supplemental compensation with leadership status agents.

Achieving leadership status should be part of your agency’s marketing and business plan for 2019. To discover how close you are to earning leadership status, contact your State Director.

4. Aggregate Your Book of Business

The opportunity to aggregate your book of business with Smart Choice® is one of the most underutilized benefits of joining the Smart Choice® agency network. If you choose to move your current book of business under your Smart Choice® agreement, you become eligible for higher commissions. Book ownership stays completely within your agency.

For example, if you have business written through your direct appointment with Travelers, you can earn higher a commission by moving that business under the Smart Choice® umbrella without moving the business from Travelers.

Aggregation is a powerful way to make more money faster, especially once you’ve achieved leadership status. All Smart Choice® asks is that you write $100,000 in premium, grow 1 percent year-over-year, and maintain a loss ratio that matches your carrier’s set loss ratio. It’s madness not to aggregate!

5. Schedule a Meeting with Your State Director or Territory Manager

The most important action step you can take to make the most of your experience with Smart Choice® is to schedule a meeting or call with your State Director or Territory Manager. They can explain how you can take advantage of Smart Start™, sign up with Express Markets™ carriers, achieve leadership status, and aggregate your book of business to make more money. But those are just a few of the benefits your Smart Choice® membership provides. Don’t forget to ask your State Director or Territory Manager about our free agency website templates, discounts on raters and agency management systems, and yearlong access to unlimited CE for just $29, too. We’re here to help!

SMART START™ & EXPRESS MARKETS™ CARRIERS

Here are just a few of the carriers available through the Smart Start™ program:

• Berkshire Hathaway
• GUARD
• CNA
• Liberty Mutual
• Met Commercial
• Progressive
• Safeco
• The Hartford
• Travelers

Here is a sample of Express Markets™ carriers:

• Burns & Wilcox
• Dovetail
• Hiscox
• RMS
• SES
• Southern Cross
• USLI
• Wright Flood