Up Close And Personal: Sspl Strategies To Assist Agents In The Hard Market
by Jason Hamstra
As we all know, personal lines carriers and agents in 2023 have faced significant challenges due to hard market conditions. Smart Start Personal Lines has felt the impacts of these tough conditions due to the many carriers in the program who have been taking actions to combat these difficulties.
So, how has Smart Start Personal Lines navigated these choppy waters over the past few months?
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Carrier Relationships – Existing and New
Because personal lines carriers are struggling with profitability challenges and rate adequacy, many of them have slowed down or shut off new business. SSPL has worked closely with carriers to find ways to keep markets open and available for agents in our program.
While this has been a challenging endeavor, it is much better to have markets available such as package submission only vs. no market availability at all. In this type of environment when carriers are pulling back, SSPL has worked diligently with key partners to identify and gain agreements to maintain market access.
Additionally, SSPL has pro-actively sought out carriers to add to the platform to help fill gaps or voids. Some examples from this year included: Cypress – TX, Bamboo – CA, Orion180, Clearcover, And more.
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Personal Lines Risk Specialist Alignment
As we headed into 2023, SSPL implemented a new strategy that aligns Personal Lines Risk Specialists with specific states to help our team become experts in their assigned states’ markets, agents and field staff.
As the market continued to become more challenging throughout the year, the Personal Lines Risk Specialists were charged with finding alternative carrier opportunities to present to agents when the selected carrier was not an option.
The goal was to provide agents solutions rather than closing out quotes that were not available with the agent-selected carrier.
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Review of Rater Quotes
Many Personal Lines carriers placed greater restrictions on providing quotes via the comparative rater to slow down new business and restrict certain risks.
Because these restrictions were causing an increased level of frustration, SSPL offered agents and field staff an alternative avenue for submitting the applicant profile straight to the SSPL where a more experienced staff member would review the applicant input.
By identifying and making key adjustments to the input, SSPL has been able to provide a carrier quote option that was not previously made available.
The important aspect of this service was not only to identify the key information that may cause rates to not return, but also to educate the agents with rater tips and reinforce the available carrier markets in their state with the current minimum eligibility requirements.
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Website Refresh
The SSPL portion of the Agency Business Center was revamped this year to better assist agents in navigating through the SSPL quoting process.
One of the areas of focus was making it easier to submit quote requests for business not supported by the comparative rater. In addition, a Best Practices – “How to build a Preferred Book of Business” document was added to the site.
This file outlines the core elements of building a sustainable and long-lasting book of business. When faced with the headwinds such as we have experienced in 2023, it will be important for agents to adopt and incorporate this plan into their agencies.
Over the coming months, as carriers remove certain restrictions, many will return to the basic fundamentals of their desired client profile and this document will help agents regain and sustain access to the preferred markets.
We are looking forward to a turnaround in market conditions in 2024, but until then the SSPL team will continue to find ways to help you maximize profitability and service your clients.