e-Insight - January 2021 by Big I Illinois

JANUARY 2021

INSIGHT AGENCY MARKETING

Trends, Tips, and Tricks for 2021 Plus

The Hard Market

- How did we get here? Springfield, Illinois Permit No. 178

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JANUARY 2021

Editor & Graphic Design - Rachel Romines

Advertising - Tami Hubbell

CONTENTS 13

IIA of IL Wellness Series: Seasonal Affective Disorder

15 18 20 22 24 26 28

Nine Habits That Cause Us Unnecessary Trouble

By Alicia Davis-Wade

By John Graham

The Basics of a Winning Digital Marketing Plan

By Luis Pino

Seven Tools to Kickstart Your Marketing

By Dshanya Reese

It’s a Context Battle - Not a Content Battle

By Zach Weeks

New Marketing Tactics for Your Agency in 2021

By Joseph Cox

The Hard Market - How Did We Get Here?

By Victoria Dearing

A Guide to Success in a Challenging Market

By Bob Rosenkoetter

In This Issue

The Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois (IIA of IL) has been providing members with a sustainable competitive advantage since 1899.

7 8 9 10 17

President’s Message Trusted Choice Brett’s Two Sense Government

30 32 33 34

Associate News Agency Members in the News IIA of IL News Classifieds

e-Insight

info@iiaofil.org | www.iiaofil.org | (800) 628-6436 or (217) 793-6660 | Fax: (217) 793-6744

2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 2014 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2019 • 2020

Insight is the official publication of the Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois (IIA of IL). The magazine is published monthly for the members of the IIA of IL, with the office located at 4360 Wabash Avenue, Springfield, Illinois 62711-7009; Consumer Website: www.ChooseIndependent.com. The IIA of IL welcomes letters discussing concerns of the insurance industry, articles, editorials, other matters of interest to the membership. The editor reserves the right to edit and select submissions for publication. Address submissions for review to Rachel Romines at rromines@iiaofil.org. For advertising information, contact Tami Hubbell at thubbell@iiaofil.org.

Board of Directors Executive Committee

Chairman of the Board | Bill Wirth (618) 939-6368 | billw@wirthagency.com

ADVERTISERS 36

APPLIED UNDERWRITERS

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY/GUARD INSURANCE CO

President | George Daly (708) 845-3311 | george.daly@thehortongroup.com

ENVISION HEALTHCARE

President-Elect | Jay Peterson, AFIS, LUTCF (217) 935-6605 | jay@peterson.insurance

GRINNELL MUTUAL REINSURANCE COMPANY

Regional Directors

Region 1 | James Sager (618) 548-2796 | james@kaneinsurance.com

HEMPHILL FINANCIAL GROUP/LEGALSHIELD

IIA OF IL SOLUTION CENTER

IMT INSURANCE

6 32 Cover Tip

INSURANCE PROGRAM MANAGERS GROUP JM WILSON OMAHA NATIONAL

Region 2 | Joseph Heneghan (618) 639-2244 | joe.heneghan@hwcrins.com

SECURA

Region 3 | Christopher Leming (217) 321-3185 | cleming@troxellins.com

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WEST BEND MUTUAL INSURANCE CO.

Committee Chairs

IIA of Illinois Staff

Budget & Finance | Bennie Jones (312) 960-6200 | bjones@rmsoa.com

Director of Information and Technology Shannon Churchill - (217) 321-3004 - schurchill@iiaofil.org

Director of Government Relations Evan Manning - (217) 321-3002 - emanning@iiaofil.org

Education | Teresa Fleming, CIC, CISR (815) 849-5219 | tess@leffelmanassoc.com

Director of Education and Agency Resources Brett Gerger - (217) 321-3006 - bgerger@iiaofil.org

Office Administrator Kristi Osmond - (217) 321-3007 - kosmond@iiaofil.org

Accounting & Admin Services Tami Hubbell - (217) 321-3016 - thubbell@iiaofil.org

Director of Communications Rachel Romines - (217) 321-3024 - rromines@iiaofil.org

Director of Human Resources, Board Admin Jennifer Jacobs - (217) 321-3013 - jjacobs@iiaofil.org

Director of Membership Services Tom Ross, CRIS, CPIA - (217) 321-3003 - tross@iiaofil.org

Sr. Vice President/Chief Financial Officer Mark Kuchar - (217) 321-3015 - mkuchar@iiaofil.org

Products & Services Administrator Janet White, CISR - (217) 321-3010 - jwhite.indep12@insuremail.net

Chief Executive Officer Phil Lackman - (217) 321-3005 - plackman@iiaofil.org

Director of Prof. Liability & Ins. Products Carol Wilson, CPIA - (217) 321-3011 - cwilson.indep12@insuremail.net

Central/Southern Marketing Representative Lori Mahorney - (217) 415-7550 - lmahorney@iiaofil.org

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president's message | INSIGHT

Happy New Year! As 2020 comes to an end, I can’t help but feel a huge sigh of relief. What will 2021 have in store for all of us?? As you read this article, there are many miracle vaccines going into the arms of our amazing healthcare workers and first responders. Soon, the most vulnerable population will receive this scientific wonder and we will be on the path toward getting our freedom back. I would love to know from each of you what you have planned as soon as we have the green light to resume unrestricted activity. I asked our IIA Board Members what is the one thing they hope to do once the pandemic is over. Here are some of those responses: Take a walk outside to take joy in seeing the unmasked facial expressions of everyone I see. - Amiri Curry, At-Large Board Member Go to a major league baseball game – anywhere and any team! - Randy Jacobs, FAC Representative Go to a PACKED sporting event with my Family (NCAA Tournament, PGA Tournament, NFL Game). - Pat Taphorn, Government Relations Chair Shake hands and/or hug. - Nick Gunn, Region 5 Director Travel to Greece or take my Dad to Mexico. - Bennie Jones, Secretary/Treasurer Travel with family and attend an athletic event. - Kevin Lesch, Vice President Visit with my parents. - Bill Wirth, Chairman of the Board All of the things. Dining out with friends, go see a ballgame, travel, and be with people. - Ryan Hite, Technology Committee Chair Shake hands and give hugs! - Greg Sandrock, National Director-IIABA Shaking hands! - James Sager, Region 1 Director Start shaking hands again! - Jay Peterson, President-Elect I am going to hug people and make it awkward. - Tess Fleming, Education Committee Chair I’m missing friends & family gatherings, and can’t wait to be with a group of “maskless” friends enjoying live music & dancing! - Cindy Jackman, Planning and Coordination Chair

Give a hug to someone from outside my own house – “Family.” - Chris Bassler, Region 10 Director Travel! - Allyson Padilla, At-Large Board Member Go to a Bears Game and have a Beer!!! - Michael-Charles Hilson, At-Large Board Member Visit my family again. Several of them have compromised immune systems so they have stayed away from the rest of our family since this all began. - Joe Heneghan, Region 2 Director I’d like to have the opportunity to see my senior son play either football or wrestle his senior year. It’s heartbreaking to see all these kids missing out on their senior year. - Tom Evans, Jr., Region 6 Director I am looking forward to traveling with friends and family once the pandemic is over. - Renee Crissie, Young Agent Chair My answer: I see my Mom every week but I have not hugged her since last March. I’m looking forward to a big bear hug with her once it’s safe. Everyone has their own personal wish list. But, while we are waiting for these dreams to become reality, we have some business to do. In this issue of Insight, you will receive some valuable info about the hard market we have entered and some ideas to navigate successfully through these choppy waters. In addition, there is wonderful information that will help you build or refine your digital footprint. We all have the opportunity to enhance our digital brand and use technology to take our agencies to a new level. The digital lessons we learn today will be valuable skills we can continue to deploy well after the pandemic is gone. Happy New Year to all of our members. May this year bring new happiness, new goals, new achievements and a lot of new inspiration in your life. At the same time, 2020 helped us to appreciate our own family, our own neighborhood and the simple things in life so much more. I hope any path you choose is filled with a promise for a brighter tomorrow. Happy New Year !!

George Daly - IIA of IL President - (708) 845-3311 - george.daly@thehortongroup.com january 2021

insight

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Referral Fees As Agency Resource Manager, one of the most frequently asked questions I get is how can I pay referral fees? Many are under the impression that paying referral fees may violate the rebating law. This could be true, if I pay someone a referral fee and the person that I pay the referral fee to turns around and gives a portion of that fee to a consumer contingent on the consumer purchasing a policy. More often, when paying referral fees, agents violate the law regarding paying commissions to an unlicensed entity or individual. Be careful to ensure that when you pay a referral fee that the individual did not sell, solicit, or negotiate insurance. The easiest definition for them to meet is solicit. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Solicitâ&#x20AC;? means attempting to sell insurance or asking or urging a person to apply for a particular kind of insurance from a particular company. So, if I tell Lori to go purchase auto insurance from Phil, as he sells superior auto insurance products through ABC Insurance Company, at a low price. That scenario meets the definition of soliciting. If Phil does not pay me anything, then I do not need a license. If he were to pay me, then I would be required to be licensed in that line of authority (casualty). Further guidance from the Illinois Department of Insurance suggests: If a producer chooses to pay a referral fee to a non-licensed person, the payment may not be conditioned on the purchase of insurance nor may the purchase of insurance be a factor in determining the amount of the referral fee.

B r e t t â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2 Sense in amounts depending on the Director in place, at the time, but most Directors levied fines for this behavior. Additionally, it puts the referrer in a bad situation as well, due to them soliciting without a license and they could possibly be referred to the Illinois Attorney General for prosecution. Had you not paid the referrer; they would have not been required to be licensed.

When you tell an individual that you will give them money for everyone that they refer, you have know way of knowing what they will do or have done to get that person to contact you. For all you know they may have solicited and put you in a precarious position with your licensure.

Enough of the doom and gloom, there is a very simple way to pay referral fees and operate inside the parameters of the law. Best practice is to pay someone for a list of people and their contact information. That way you are the one soliciting and the payment is not contingent on the sale of the insurance.

In all my years with the Illinois Department of Insurance, I worked numerous cases where individuals were levied fines for the above described behavior. Fines varied

If you have any suggestions for future articles, please email me at bgerger@iiaofil.org.

Brett Gerger | IIA of IL Director of Education & Agency Resources bgerger@iiaofil.org | (217) 321-3006 january 2021

insight

INSIGHT | government

Election Roundup and the 102nd General Assembly By Evan Manning On Monday, December 14, the Electoral College certified the presidential election victory to President-elect Joe Biden. Now that the presidential election debate is over; the national attention moves to the two Senate runoff races. These seats are crucial for the Republican held majority in the Senate. If the two seats flip to the Democratic nominees, the Senate would become 50-50 with Vice President Harris being the deciding vote, should it come to it. The election results are sure to decide the fate of health insurance and the insurance industry as a whole. A split in Congress will make it very difficult to do substantial healthcare reform as well as in the property and casualty arena. The industry could be facing a very different Washington landscape depending on the scenario that plays out come inauguration day, January 20, 2021. The Property and Casualty insurance industry could see a flurry of legislative activity around taxes, climate-energy-and-infrastructure, social justice, risk-based insurance pricing, and business interruption, among other issues. In Illinois, the Illinois State Board of Elections on December 4th certified the results of the November 3rd General Election. Democrats maintained their trifecta control of both legislative chambers and the Governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office. Democrats will maintain veto-proof majorities in both chambers. In the Senate, Democrats gained one seat, for a supermajority of 41 members. In the House, Republicans picked up one seat, but Democrats will maintain a supermajority, with 73 members. New records were set for total registered voters and total number of votes cast. The voter participation rate of 72.92% is the highest since 1992. The Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) estimates that voters exercised the modes of casting votes -- in person, by mail, and early voting -- in roughly equal amounts of two million votes each. State Rep. John Cabello has filed papers with the Rockford Board of Elections for a recount of 10 Rockford precincts. Final results have Dave Vella beating the Republican by 239 votes of 53,301 votes cast. Cabello has held the seat since Aug. 2012. Also seeking a recount is state Sen. Jim Oberweis, who sought the Congressional seat now held by Lauren Underwood. All seven counties within the 14th Congressional district are a part of the discovery recount request. According to unofficial results, Underwood garnered 5,374 more votes than Oberweis. The first-term Democrat declared victory on Nov. 18. Senate President Don Harmon was selected by the Senate Democratic Caucus to continue to lead the chamber during the 102nd General Assembly. Harmon was first elected 10

insight

Senate President in January of 2020 after former Senate President John Cullerton resigned. The Senate Republicans have selected a new Minority Leader in Senator Dan McConchie to replace Senator Bill Brady. The Senate Republicans lost one seat in the November election and now have 18 members in the caucus. Leader Jim Durkin will once again lead the House Republican Caucus in the 102nd General Assembly. He fought off early rumblings of an opponent in Rep. Toni McCombie, but the two have come together in support. The House Republicans picked up a net one seat in the November election. One of the biggest stories in the last couple of months in Illinois is the amount of House Democrats defecting from Speaker Mike Madiganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s camp. 19 House Democrats have publicly stated their intention to not vote for Speaker Madigan in his bid to become Speaker of the House for the 102nd General Assembly. Recently, the House Black Caucus endorsed House Speaker Michael Madigan for another term as House Speaker following a candidate forum. Madigan reportedly told the caucus that he was best positioned to lead the caucus efforts on redistricting and shepherding through any tax increase that the Governor might request. This could potentially become a major issue for the next fiscal year. The only candidate to throw their hat into the ring alongside Speaker Madigan is Rep. Stephanie Kifowit. The election of the Speaker could loom large into 2021 as the House of Representatives is unable to preside without an elected Speaker of the House. Stay tuned and keep up to date with any news on this issue in our e-Weekly. The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus will operate under new leadership for the 102nd General Assembly. Representative Sonya Harper will Chair the caucus, replacing Senator Kimberly Lightford who served for six years in the position. Senator Emil Jones, III will serve as Treasurer, Representative Lakesia Collins will serve as Secretary and Representative Curtis Tarver will serve as Sargent at Arms. Senator Robert Peters was elected to Chair to the Senate Black Caucus. An election is expected soon to fill the House Caucus Chair position. There are thirty-six members of the 102nd General Assembly who won their first full terms in November. Seven Democrats will be new to the House, and 7 will return after being appointed to the position in the 101st General Assembly. Ten Republicans will be new, and 1 (Brad Stephens) will return after being appointed. In the Senate, 3 Democrats will be new, and 5 will return after having been elected for the first time. Three Republicans will be new to the Senate. Additionally, 4 of the new Senators (2 Democrats and 2 Republicans) will join the Senate after having served in the House in january 2021

government | INSIGHT

the 101st General Assembly; and 3 other newly elected Democratic Senators also served in the House before being appointed to the Senate. The new members of the 102nd General Assembly are listed below. As we all look to a better 2021, the Illinois General Assembly may be meeting in early January for a “lame duck” session, this would occur before the inauguration of the 102nd General Assembly. The lame duck session, if it occurs, could see the legislative agenda from the Black Caucus, workers’ compensation extension of the agreed

bill from May, telehealth reform, and much more. As I stated earlier please stay up to date with everything you may need to know with the e-Weekly as well as my weekly Springfield Updates. We here at the IIA of IL look forward to safer, healthier, more normal, and prosperous new year. We wish nothing but the best for you, your families, your business, and your clients. We hope you had a happy holiday and have an even happier new year. Evan Manning is the Director of Government Relations for the IIA of IL and can be reached at emanning@iiaofil.org or (217) 321-3002.

102nd General Assembly New Member Listing (2021-2022) Senate District

New Member

Party

Predecessor

Party

Rep. Karina Villa

Jim Oberweis

Win Stoller

Chuck Weaver

Rep. John Connor

Pat McGuire

Meg Cappel

Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant

Rep. Darren Bailey

Dale Righter

Rep. Terri Bryant

Paul Schmipf

District

New Member

Party

Predecessor

Party

Margaret Croke

Johnathan “Yoni” Pizer

Denise Wang Stoneback

Yehiel “Mark” Kalish

Tim Ozinga

Margo McDermed

Janet Yang Rohr

Grant Wehrli

Seth Lewis

Diane Pappas

Maura Hirshauer

Karina Villa

Chris Bos

Mary Edly-Allen

Martin McLaughlin

David McSweeney

Suzanne M. Ness

Allen Skillicorn

Dave Vella

John Cabello

Jackie Haas

Lindsay Parkhurst

Dagmara “Dee” Avelar

John Connor

Mark Luft

Michael Unes

109

Adam Niemerg

Darren Bailey

111

Amy Elik

Monica Bristow

115

Paul Jacobs

Terri Bryant

116

David Friess

Nathan Reitz

House

january 2021

insight

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IIA of IL Wellness Series Seasonal Affective Disorder Why This Year May Be Different

By Alicia Davis-Wade Life’s been harder than anyone could have imagined, and that strain and uncertainty may have taken a toll on your mental health. Depression and anxiety, which are constant companions for many, can be devastating disorders that can rob people of their energy, joy, and sense of safety. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), also known as the “winter blues” is a type of depression that is related to changes in seasons. SAD is a form of depression that typically begins in late fall or early winter and ends in the spring and summer. Symptoms can include, but not limited to, poor mood, low energy, excessive sleepiness, craving carbohydrates, over-eating and gaining weight, and social withdrawal.

• Connect with others. One of the biggest parts of seasonal depression is feeling isolated. Many people started feeling Zoom fatigue with COVID-19 after a few weeks in virtual meetings/gatherings. If you have stopped talking to your friends over video, now is a good time to get back into it but know your limitations to avoid burnout. • Take a Vacation. Taking a winter vacation to warmer climates can help. Travel does more than gives you a break from your daily routine. A few days in a sunny place can help lift your spirits. If you chose to take a vacation, remember to follow COVID-19 guidelines to keep you and other safe.

Many of us have been managing pandemic stress for a while, the onset of SAD may make those stressors harder to cope with, minds are better handling tough situations when we are mentally healthy. As we enter to the winter season, many people are starting to feel more stressed, sad, or alone than in past years. Depression symptoms like fatigue, hopelessness, and irritability are common. If you typically experience SAD, turning back the clock an hour and losing an hour of daylight at the end of the afternoon can also amplify the symptoms we are already experiencing due to the pandemic.

• Keep a journal. Writing down your thoughts can have a positive effect on your mood. It can help you get some of your negative feelings out of your system.

Continued feelings of isolation and uncertainty from the pandemic can enhance your SAD symptoms. The pandemic can be creating some of the conditions that often trigger SAD, not getting out of the house as much and spending less time outside. The weather is getting colder in many areas, outdoor gatherings may not be an option and officials are urging that indoor gatherings remain small. Feeling trapped and isolated is a common part of both the stress of the pandemic and seasonal depression. When you are dealing with both at once, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and defeated.

If you are not feeling yourself, remember the mind-body connection. The opposite of happiness is not always depression, but if you have to think too long about what moments in life are bringing you joy, it may be a sign that something is a bit off. “Depression doesn’t always look like debilitating sadness,” says Richard Kravitz, M.D., M.S.P.H., a professor of internal medicine at the University of California, Davis. The symptoms are not always sign of obvious helplessness or suicidal. Understanding the mind-body connection, the interplay between physical and mental health can help you stay well. To stay healthy, treat the mind and body as two parts of a whole.

Here are a few things that may help you cope with SAD: • Light therapy boxes give off light that mimics natural outdoor light and can help boost serotonin and other brain chemicals linked to mood. You can order light therapy lamp yourself and pricing begins around $30. • Spend time in the sun when possible. In the winter it is easy to fall into a cycle of waking up, working all day, and then by the time you are ready to ready to enjoy your evening, it is dark outside. Make a conscious effort to get outside every day. It does not have a big excursion, simply just 15 minutes on your front porch. january 2021

• Get help if symptoms are interfering with your life. If it is hard to function as you typically do, you many need some extra support. SAD is a valid type of depression and people have found working with a therapist to be effective during the tougher months. Depending on your experience, your doctor or therapist may suggest medication which can be helpful.

Alicia Davis-Wade, MA, CAE is the Assistant Executive Director of the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association. Prior to her tenure at ISVMA, Alicia spent 17 years in public health. During her time at Menard County Health Department, she held the positions of Director of Family Service and Administrator. As Director of Family Service, she counseled and facilitated both individuals and groups on topics ranging from self-esteem to domestic violence. Alicia earned her MA from the University of Illinois – Springfield.

insight

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Habits That Cause Us

UNNECESSARY TROUBLE

Most of us are talented at excusing personal habits as trivial idiosyncrasies or minor infractions. Yet, they can come together to form a clear picture of who we are in the eyes of others. Here are nine habits, among many others, that we can easily overlook or ignore. However, if we do, they can cause us unnecessary trouble, both personally and professionally: 1. Winging It What is it? It’s assuming we’re so smart or experienced that we don’t need to prepare for a presentation. It starts out innocently. We run out of time and decide to “wing it.” Before long, it’s a habit. By then, we’ve convinced ourselves that we’re getting by with it. Don’t kid yourself. Everyone knows—customers, prospects, co-workers, and the boss. 2. Thinking We’re Indispensable “Which of us can resist the temptation of being thought indispensable,” wrote Margaret Attwood. When leaving to take a new job, some want to think they’re leaving a hole that can’t be filled. But, as Dene Ward notes in Medium’s The Ascent, “The reality is that every organization can survive a departure, unless you are a sole proprietor!” It’s much better to leave a legacy of quality performance and training a capable replacement. 3. Missing Deadlines No matter the task or assignment or how much pressure is put on some people, they’re still late, even though they may be bright, capable workers. Missing deadlines can a form of job protest, like slowing down a production line. A better way is to establish credibility by being on time and then speaking up. Others are more likely to listen. 4. Saying Yes But No Intention of Doing It It’s a good way to get off the hook for the moment, but it comes back to bite us. In the workplace, it’s called Task Avoidance. Yet, it doesn’t solve a problem, it only delays facing it, creating doubt and undermining personal trust. Even though it may be stressful, many people repeat it throughout their work lives. 5. Not Taking Time to Communicate Effectively A Fast Company article states, “Communication was the most commonly required skill in job opportunities posted to the platform in July and August” of 2020. This is no surprise, since tens of millions are working remotely, due to the pandemic. In spite of the available technology virtual meetings, texting, email, and, of course, the phone - we have become “silos of one.” The article points out that four of the top 20 most popular LinkedIn Learning courses “deal directly with communication skills training,

january 2021

By John Graham and three address a related skill, such as ‘Remote Learning Foundations’ and ‘Learning Personal Branding.’” 6. Not Being Aware of What’s Going on Around Us “When they were fired, 68% of participants noted they were surprised–they had not seen it coming,” according to a Forbes article. How does it happen? We all see what we want to see and filter out anything that doesn’t fit the picture of ourselves. An employer tells of a 20-year key worker who cried when told the company was closing, even though the information she worked with every day contained obvious clues. She couldn’t see them. This is why questioning our thoughts and ideas helps improve awareness. 7. Not Having a Plan With so many ways to vote in the recent election, urging everyone to vote wasn’t enough, particularly during the pandemic. To make sure our vote would be counted, we were urged to have a plan. That was good advice. As a famous author reminds us, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” And we all know what that means. 8. Ignoring Details With student debt weighing down the future of millions of Gen-Zs and Millennials, many claim they didn’t understand what they were getting into. Some say they signed contracts without reading them or having a trusted person review them. Now their lives are on hold. If we assume everyone is honest, we can find ourselves in trouble. We believe it when told, “Don’t worry about it. It’s all standard boilerplate. Just sign here.” As they say, “The devil is in the details.” 9. Leaving It Until the Last Minute Some claim procrastinating makes them more creative. They may be on to something, since the subconscious mind has more time to do its work. Perhaps, but it’s also true that quality output doesn’t occur with the first pass or initial draft. It requires extra time, for review, additional thought, reworking, and polishing. If that isn’t enough, last minute leaves no room for something going wrong. This is also when we hear the excuse, “I didn’t have enough time.” There is a long list of other habits that can cause unnecessary trouble. If you take the time to make up your own personal list, you may avoid bothersome problems and move forward faster. John Graham of GrahamComm is a marketing and sales strategy consultant and business writer. He is the creator of “Magnet Marketing,” and publishes a free monthly eBulletin, “No Nonsense Marketing & Sales Ideas.” Contact him at jgraham@grahamcomm.com, (617) 774-9759 or johnrgraham.com. insight

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Local SEO Gold Rush Nobody is Talking About By Brian Segal In this monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s e-Insight. january 2021

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The Basics of a

Winning Digital Marketing Plan

By Luis Pino

Most independent agents agree that a digital marketing plan is an essential part of an overall marketing strategy in today’s connected world. Agencies seeking growth cannot do without one. But while many agents know they need to do more digital marketing, they lack a cohesive plan. Successful digital marketing requires a plan – a strategy. Not only will it make your agency’s marketing more successful, but also will give you direction on where and how to focus your marketing efforts.

without knowing who you are trying to reach. Does your agency have an ideal client? That is the person you want to create a marketing plan around. In marketing terms, creating your audience is also known as creating a buyer persona. To download a free editable template, go to: https://promo.agentero.com/buyerpersona-guide.

Here we will discuss the basics to help get your agency’s digital marketing plan on the right track.

Know Your Audience A digital marketing plan begins with your audience. You simply can’t launch an effective digital marketing strategy 18

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The more you know about your buyer, the better you can aim your digital marketing plan directly at their pain points. Start by asking yourself a few questions: • Consider the basics here: How old is your audience? Where do they live? What do they do for a living? Do they have a family? What is their income level? • Consider their concerns. When it comes to insurance, what concerns does your audience have? What keeps them up at night? What do they worry about? • Think deeply about your customer. What moves them? Think about their emotional and mental drives. What is going to motivate your target audience to purchase insurance? • Then, understand your clients’ pain points. When it comes to insurance, what is your audience’s problem and how can you solve it? Are they hung up on the cost of insurance? Do they lack knowledge about what kind of protection they need? Do they lack the time it takes to investigate their options? Identify your customers’ problems and become the solution.

Set Your Marketing Goals The hallmark of an excellent digital marketing plan is specific and measurable goals. Consider what you want to accomplish with your digital marketing plan. For independent agents, goals should be specific, timely and relevant. Examples may include: • Grow leads by 5 percent in the first quarter using lead forms and social media posts • Increase web-based conversions by 15 percent month over month

Create Your Content Plan A digital marketing strategy is an empty shell without content. Marketing content is the honey that is going to attract your audience. Once you have identified the channels you will use in your strategy, you must create a content plan. Keep in mind, content parameters should be established for every digital marketing channel in your program. If you plan to use a couple of social media channels and an agency blog, you may have content parameters for each of those. When developing your content plan, consider: • Keyword strategy: A keyword strategy is essential to a content plan. Identify the keywords that will help improve your search ranking so consumers can find you. • Develop a content calendar: A content calendar helps keep your marketing plan on track. Include in it your content subject, the date it will be published and where. Also, note who is creating the content.

Track and Measure One of the greatest gifts of digital marketing is the way it lends itself to measurable results. An effective digital marketing plan must contain a system to measure results. This is how you know the program is working. Key performance indicators (KPIs) of a marketing campaign will determine if your campaign is getting the desirable results. Select KPIs that correspond well with your marketing goals. For example, if part of your strategy is to convert website visitors into leads, you will want to measure your traffic to lead ratio.

In creating your digital marketing goals, focus on the areas where your agency has the best opportunity. For example, if you have a great homeowners’ product, you may set a goal around cross-marketing homeowners’ insurance to your auto only clients. While technically this isn’t an inbound strategy, such a goal may look something like this, “Increase homeowner cross sales to auto only customers by 10 percent in the first quarter.”

Similarly, if part of your digital marketing plan is to increase organic traffic to your website, use organic traffic visitors as a KPI and develop an SEO strategy to help people find your agency in their search engines.

Gather Your Tools

Don’t be Afraid to Change Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Once you have defined your audience and set your goals, you must determine the channels you want to use and create a content plan. There are several channels for digital marketing, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Also, Google AdWords offers opportunities for video, search, and display ads. Users can select their channels, and Google AdWords positions them across the entire Google network. When selecting digital marketing channels, consider your audience and your goals. For agents, Facebook may be a more effective channel if your buyer is a more middleaged demographic. Instagram, on the other hand, offers a younger demographic.

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The goal of tracking your marketing efforts is to optimize your campaigns and make the necessary changes to achieve your KPIs.

Even the most well researched digital marketing strategies are adjusted and tweaked over time. Remember you aren’t married to your digital marketing strategy. Regularly evaluate your results and modify your plan as needed. Luis Pino is the CEO at Agentero, which offers digital solutions to help independent agents grow their agencies and provide better customer service to their clients. Agentero believes in the combination of technology and the expertise of the trusted insurance advisor. To learn more about how Agentero can help you reach your full potential, visit their website and request your free demo.

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Tools 7 to Kickstart Your Marketing ...and most of them are free!

By Dshanya Reese

For much of the insurance industry, bringing in new clients and effective communication are key to maintaining a profitable client base and ensuring you provide an optimal customer experience. Thankfully, with the evolution of technology, your marketing doesn’t need to solely rely on the more traditional (and some may say uninventive) methods. In fact, there are many valuable resources you can use to maximize your marketing strategy. Here are 7 free and easy-to-use tools to kickstart your marketing without creating additional stress:

Need: SEO Tool Solution: Ubersuggest Ubersuggest is a giant tool for anyone, whether beginner or expert, to analyze their competitors, gather keywords and phrases that will work, and find the best strategy for creating content that Google will pick up and make visible to your intended audience. Although Ubersuggest offers a wide list of resources, here’s a quick rundown: users can search their competitors’ domains and see a background of their marketing strategies; have keywords suggested to you based on relevance and season; review content with the most hits so you’ll know exactly what to write about; track your own backlinks effectively.

Need: Content Writing and Proofreading Tool Solution: Grammarly Grammarly is an app and internet extension that tracks your writing in the background and proofreads it for you. Many of the suggestions the app provides are simple, common mistakes that can enhance your writing when fixed. When you double click a word in Google Docs or in an email, as examples, Grammarly will provide synonyms you can replace it with. If you pay an extra bit per month, you can also use Grammarly Pro which will suggest the reworkings of sentences based on your tone and audience.

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Need: Graphics Creation Tool Solution: Canva Canva is an online tool or smartphone app that lets you build graphics for social media, your blog, brand images, and any other marketing visuals you may need for your business. The platform provides templates for free or a small fee as well as plenty of images and fonts to choose from. For a monthly fee, you can go pro where you have access to much more visuals and can build branding colors, etc. Canva is an easy to use tool that requires no graphic design experience or pricey photo editing software.

Need: Animation Tool Solution: Biteable No animation skills? You don’t need them with the easy to build animated video tool on Biteable. Imagine being able to create videos within seconds using stock images and templates made available by the app that you can use to align with your brand and distribute your message to your audience. If you have your own clips or images too, you can easily integrate them within the video. Your animation is free to download and use on all your social media or online platforms.

Need: Video Creation Tool Solution: WeVideo WeVideo is an online video editor that makes it simple and quick to create videos for your agency’s brand. Reminiscent of classic video editors without the intense cost, you can build a video in minutes and share it just as quickly. There is no need to purchase greenscreens and expensive lights as you can incorporate them effortlessly into the video editor. There are also over a million stock images, video clips, and music tracks you can add to your video to make it look even more professional. And of course, it’s free!

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Need: Infographics Tool Solution: Venngage

Need: Meme Creation Tool Solution: Kapwing

Infographics are one of the most useful visuals you can create that will engage with customers and provide valuable content for them to build relationships with your brand. Venngage offers users the ability to create infographics for free using their templates and building platform that ensures each graphic is professional and easy to make. You can add visuals, build graphs and charts, and customize your infographic to your brand in minutes. From there, download the image and share it on your social media or print onto pamphlets to send home with potential customers.

Memes are enormously popular right now among almost every generation and are a quick and easy way of communicating with your audience. They’re also simple to make with meme generators like Kapwing. Start by choosing your template, insert your own image/GIF or choose one that’s already popular or recognizable online, and then add your text and customize it. You can review many of the thousands of trending memes and build your own from there, download it, and share it easily with your customers.

For much of the insurance industry, bringing in new clients and effective communication are key to maintaining a profitable client base and ensuring you provide an optimal customer experience.

If there’s a marketing trend you want to use to promote your agency, chances are that there’s a free or useful platform you can utilize to perfectly optimize your strategy. Dshanya Reese is a Personal Lines Account Manager for Watkins Insurance Group in Texas. Since 2014, she has been the resident expert of the agency’s brand voice and architecture, ensuring that consistent and high-quality communication and community engagement advance the agency’s mission.

Thank You! Agents

We appreciate your support in 2020 and wish you all the very best for the new year.

Commercial Lines | Personal Lines

See state availability at www.guard.com

january 2021

insight

IT’S A

CONTEXT BATTLE, NOT A CONTENT BATTLE By Zach Weeks The internet is an ever-expanding marketplace. Yet, it’s full of websites and brands competing for a consumer’s attention. This is why it can be difficult to grow brand awareness online. There are two strategies that can help even the smallest insurance agencies create brand awareness online… Search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). You might think these are the same. They aren’t. But we’ll get into that later. The practice of search engine marketing isn’t new. However, the landscape has changed over the last decade. The insurance industry generated $630 billion in 2019. The largest companies in the insurance industry now take full advantage of practices like pay-per-click advertising (PPC), search engine optimization, and social media advertising. As a result, being on the first page of search results has become more complex. This is especially so for insurance agencies with limited marketing budgets. The first page of Google is a battlefield. It’s a battle for expensive keywords and well-positioned marketing campaigns. Before we create your battle plan, it’s essential to understand the facts.

Search Engine Advertising in the Modern Era In 2020, more than $55 billion was spent on search advertising in the United States. According to the same Statista report, ad spending in the United States is expected to see a growth rate of 7.2% and reach over 66 million in 2021. Again, although social media advertising is not new, it has evolved. Better localization capabilities and audience targeting are now available on social media platforms. As a result, we’ve seen an explosion in adoption as companies shift marketing budgets to social media. There has also been a rise in cost to advertise on Facebook. According to Forbes, prices are up 90% year-over-year. The insurance industry is feeling that increase. The finance 22

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and insurance industries have one of the highest cost-perclick (CPC) prices on Facebook at $3.77. That’s a lot. Although many experts expect these costs to level out, Facebook knows the value proposition of their offering. In 2020, there are more than 1.69 billion Facebook users. Seventy-four percent of Facebook users are high-income earners. Ninety million small businesses use Facebook. The benefits outweigh the costs.

Keyword Context is Valuable There are two things you can take from the growth and rising costs to advertise with search engines and social media. 1: PPC is Valuable Businesses are gravitating towards PPC for one simple reason. Return on investment. Here are some key metrics that show the potential return for investing in SEM and social media advertising. • According to Google, “For every $1 spent on Google Ads, businesses earn an average revenue of $2.” • PPC ads are among the top three generators of on-page conversions. (Formstack) • Sixty-five percent of clicks made by users who intend to make a purchase go to paid ads. • Overall Facebook ad impressions increased 37 percent in 2019. (Sprout Social) 2: Context Makes You Stand Out You might be asking yourself how you can compete when it comes to PPC and buying keywords. The answer is context. To help you better understand what I mean by context, let me first provide you with some, well, context. In simple terms, a contextual keyword is a more specific keyword. One that your carefully determined targeted audience is searching for. january 2021

For example, here’s what happens when I search for auto insurance in Google:

A company I worked for previously relied heavily on conferences to motivate buyers. However, competitors were in the same situation. We knew many attendees would be on their phones during a three-day conference. It was inevitable. They would be browsing social media and sharing their experiences. We also knew they would be relying on their phones to get directions, find restaurants, and entertainment during downtime. Search engines are perfect for that type of stuff. We decided to localize ads within a 10-mile radius on social media and search engines during the duration of a competitor’s conference. As a result, we saw a significant increase in traffic to our website during this period. Strategy and creativity win the day! The rule of thumb for winning the context battle: Get local and think specific!

As you can see, State Farm, Progressive, and GEICO own the top ad space for this keyword. They paid a lot of money to hold and maintain a presence in this ad space. It’s just not cost-effective for small insurance agencies to try and compete for these generic insurance keywords. Let’s switch this up. What if instead, I put in the keyword phrase what is the best independent insurance agency near me??

There are many additional features offered by Facebook that can help you get the most out of your Facebook Ad budget. Facebook has tools in place to help you do just that. Facebook Ad Plans for Small Businesses Facebook understands that small business needs to be able to compete. They also understand that not everyone is a digital marketer. They want to take the guesswork out of Facebook Ads so they created a free, powerful solution to help small businesses and their marketing teams. With the Facebook for Business personalized ad tool, anyone can get help creating an ad plan. All it takes is to answer a few quizzes, and the tool will provide you with what you need to get started.

Growth Without Killing Your Budget SEM should be a cornerstone of every marketing budget. But don’t forget about SEO! You really should have a healthy mixture of about 30 percent SEM and 70 percent SEO. The great part about SEO is it’s essentially free if you’re willing to do the work yourself. It does take time, patience, and consistency to see positive gains from SEO. But, a consistent focus on content creation, review generation, and Google My Business refinement is a great way to grow your agency’s brand awareness online!

Yes, Progressive and some larger insurance providers still appeared highly in the ad section. However, so did local agencies.

When it comes to keyword selection, SEO is no different from SEM. Context is key. Use Google Analytics to determine what keywords are working best or not working at all. Make them more specific and gauge your results from there.

This is an excellent example of the space you want to target with your ads budget. It also demonstrates how just a little bit of added context to your keywords can make an impact.

The landscape of search engine marketing has changed. With a marketing strategy centered around context, not just content, you can grow your agency brand online.

Be Specific and Get Local

Zach Weeks is the content marketing specialist at ITC, which provides websites, marketing, rating and management software and services to the insurance industry. To learn more about ITC, visit GetITC.com. Originally published on GetITC.com.

Here’s a great example of being creative with PPC ads on social media and search engines.

january 2021

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New

Marketing Tactics for

Your Agency in

We all have experienced the changes to how business is conducted brought on by the events of 2020. In person meetings have been replaced by Zoom calls, consumers are making more purchases online, fewer networking opportunities exist and so on. In many cases consumers prefer the new marketplace. Since the pandemic, 84% of consumers are now utilizing pandemic friendly services like curbside pickup, online ordering, and virtual meetings and over 50% of consumers are avoiding businesses that have not adjusted. Many agencies are losing or gaining future customers based on actions they are taking now. With agents now having no choice but to modernize and move more of their business online, Trusted Choice resources can help make the process smoother, easier, and safer. Here are some key areas your agency should focus on to better compete in the digital marketplace during the COVID era and beyond.

Digital Marketing The world of digital marketing is vast and wide. There are countless tactics a business can utilize in order to increase brand awareness, online traffic and ultimately leads and sales. In the US alone, digital ad spending surpassed $150 billion dollars in 2020. The reason companies are spending so much there? Because it is targeted, powerful, and effective when properly utilized. Two of the more effective digital marketing efforts for insurance agencies are content marketing and digital advertising. Content marketing is routinely ranked as one of the most effective steps a business can take to drive traffic to their site. Content marketing is just that, creating content that consumers find valuable and will likely not include a direct sales pitch. The point is to deliver something your potential customer wants and visits your site to obtain. Your content can be formatted as a blog, video clip, infographic or even an interview. The reason this is such a strong tactic for the insurance industry is because many consumers lack a detailed understanding on how coverage

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works and what coverage they may need. This is an excellent way to showcase your expertise and keep consumers returning to your site regularly. When it is time for them to purchase a new policy, they will likely think of your agency first. You should also be focusing on digital advertising. Digital ads can be quickly and widely deployed, drive traffic directly to your website, while also giving you valuable insights on ad performance that print options simply cannot.

By Joseph Cox

There is no shortage of places to run digital ads, Facebook being one of the most popular, but when it comes to creation of digital ads Trusted Choice has you covered. We have several professionally developed marketing campaigns that have been advertised to consumers nationally. These same campaign elements are available to be used by members for no charge. Trusted Choice has an in-house graphic designer who can customize an ad to include your agency name and logo. All campaigns can be viewed, and items can be ordered online.

The Trusted Choice Marketing Reimbursement Program has funds available to helps agents pay for the cost and deployment of ads that also include our logo. Research additional digital marketing tactics like SEO, marketing automation and paid search (PPC) to determine what might work best for your agency.

Website Improvements Your agency website is now more important than ever. It has replaced your storefront as a key way consumers evaluate you and how they perceive your trustworthiness and expertise. Having a clear, modern, and robust website is an excellent way for you to communicate to consumers why they should do business with you. An outdated or incomplete website may give the wrong impression and not let you fully shine. If you are unsure what your website says about your agency and what the user experience is like, consider utilizing the Trusted Choice Digital Review service. This

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free program analyzes your website and provides you with a detailed report highlighting steps you can take to improve functionality and search engine rankings. If you have not updated your website in the past 5 years, it may be time to consider a new site all together. Trusted Choice has partnered with 5 industry leading web service providers known as our â&#x20AC;&#x153;Preferred Partners.â&#x20AC;? Collectively they offer a range of price points, service levels and capabilities. They all create top of the line custom websites that can really give your agency a professional look and convey that you are the right agency to do business with. The Trusted Choice Marketing Reimbursement Program can give agents back $500 when building a new site with any of the Preferred Partners.

Social Media As more interactions have moved online, social media usage has gone up. Facebook alone has over 2.5 billion daily users. The main reason to be there is because your potential customers are not only there, but they are there a lot. American adults average nearly two hours per day using social media. Many brands across all industries have seen this as an opportunity to engage more with customers. One challenge we have seen many agents face is simply not knowing what to post or how to engage. Trusted Choice has a great resource that can help. Our Content-To-Share library is full of social media formatted graphics, infographics, videos, and articles that are ready to be shared. This content all has an insurance focus and new content is added regularly. The library can easily be searched by topics related to insurance types, holidays, seasons and more. It also features a monthly social media calendar that gives you a suggested post schedule. Combining this content along with organic posts about your agency, your staff, and your community outreach work well together to convey that you are part of the same community and make people more likely to engage and do business with you. Visit the Trusted Choice site at trustedchoice.com/agents to learn more about the programs referenced above as well as some that were not mentioned. Joseph Cox is a Marketing Project Manager for Trusted Choice and can be reached at Joseph.Cox@iiaba.net with any questions.

Trusted Choice resources can help make the process smoother, easier, and safer.

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The

Hard Mark

How did we get here

The industry considers the last truly hard market occurred as a partial consequence of September 11, 2001. This firming mostly affected property and workers compensation – and to a lesser degree, general liability. Those of us who produced during that period may recall rates on renewals sometimes exceeding 100%, yet still held on to the account. Our 2020 hard market may prove that the 2001 placement challenges were a momentary blip, as the current partially pandemic driven economic and loss conditions is projected to outlast the 2001 hardening. This generation of hard market is hitting coverage lines across the board, evidencing rate pressure and capacity restrictions. It started well before the Pandemic came on the scene, though COVID-19 certainly accelerated the ramp up. In professional services lines the hardening probably started two years ago, focused on the Nursing Home/Assisted Living/Long Term marketplace. In 2018 carriers started pulling out of these lines and by the second quarter of 2019 brokers had lost more than half of the available markets. Currently there is just a handful or two of markets available for these classes and its shortages have expanded to include any risk with “residential treatment exposure”. We also saw the beginnings of the hardening of Management Liability, including Directors & Officers and Employment Practices coverages, during 2019. Property and Casualty started seeing hints of hardening in 2019 as well, with reinsurers pushing up treaty renewal costs.

What started driving this hard market if not COVID-19?

In part – Social Inflation. Social inflation is defined as “the phenomenon of unexpected rising insurance claim costs because of societal trends and views toward litigation.”1 More simply explained, it’s a societal view that insurance companies are faceless organizations who have deep pockets, coupled with claimants (fueled by trial lawyers) feeling like they are entitled to lottery-sized payouts. This “lottery mindset” of trial lawyers is not new – what is relatively fresh are venture capitalists creating a financing

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mechanism to allow trial lawyers to fight longer and harder for supersized payout awards. Traditionally trial lawyers got paid primarily on a contingency basis, where they would receive 25-35% of a settlement- but the law firm would bear the expense burden until settlement or dismissal was reached. With most law firms unable to bare the financial drain inherent in long and protracted legal fights, they would generally look for opportunities to settle for reasonable amounts. Enter Venture Capital (“VC”) funds into the litigation game the last couple of years, and now law firms had potential access to financial resources to extend a plaintiff’s fight, and afford to push for much larger settlements. These essentially stall tactics, drive up legal costs which defendants continue to accrue, extend psychological stress for enterprise management, and create core business distractions. These tactics have been especially prevalent in employment practices cases in the wake of the #MeToo movement, particularly where public opinion would likely not fall on the side of defendants. This strategic trend started to appear in the latter half of 2018 and rising settlements started to alarm underwriters and risk managers. The Social Inflation conundrum also started driving up loss costs in the nursing home / long term care marketplace. Fast forward to pre-pandemic 2020, and these litigation trends had spilled over into many other traditional classes of liability coverage. Hardening property rate increase stem from something different for the most part. Property rates began to harden in late 2019 due to diminished capacity in both the US and UK markets due to multiple cat claims (wildfires, hurricanes, etc.) in recent years. The hardening started attacking traditional Excess and Surplus Lines classes (trucking, lessors risk, buildings with large amounts of exposed roofs habitational, older buildings,) that the standard markets had gained market share in during the soft market years. Rate pressure accelerated in 2020 when COVID-19 saw buyers bringing business income claims

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ket

re?

By Victoria Dearing

to their incumbent insurers (despite most policies clearing excluding pandemic style perils), initiating an exodus from standard carriers on certain classes such as hospitality and retail services, accelerating diminished capacity. The hardening also includes in addition to greatly diminished capacity, a reluctance for carriers to provide broader terms. It has not been uncommon to see conditional/provisional renewal notices sent advising the insured that the carrier will no longer offer high limit capacity, and frequently only offer renewal terms with sharply reduced limits of liability. This leaves producers and insureds scrambling to find new coverage or backfill layers. The tightening of terms also creates a large pool of submissions shot gunning the marketplace, creating service bottlenecks and increasing underwriting response times. In some instances, markets that have been counted on in recent years to respond in 2-3 business days are taking at least a week . The large number of new opportunities hitting the markets force them to be selective about what they decide to quote and limit production sources, further adding to the brewing crisis.

How long will this last?

In talking with many carriers, there seems to be a consensus is that rates will continue to increase for the next 2-3 years and then level off for a like period. The rate increases may diminish in size over that time, however with the prolonged soft market where the industry is coming out of more than a decade of suppressed rates well below where they should have been actuarially, a cyclical market correction was overdue. The conventional wisdom is that we will not see another soft market in most classes for five years unless there are wholesale changes in our legal system, renewal of above norm GDP growth, and investment yields returning to historical averages. A few states are considering legislation to limit the involvement of venture capitalists in financing lawsuits they are not a direct party of – a form of tort reform if

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you will - but there will be a great battle with the trial lawyer and venture capital lobby who greatly profit from claims increased by social inflation. The naïve thought that insurance companies have deep pockets and making them pay harms no one does not follow sound economic principle. Enterprises small and large may have to adjust pricing to account for increased insurance costs driving up cost of goods sold. These higher costs will eventually make their way to consumers and inflationary vicious cycles may follow. A possible way out of this is consumer education, however in an era where the traditional concept of personal responsibility is being challenged, will consumers want to end their potential “lottery opportunity” any more than trial lawyers or venture capitalists? Victoria Dearing, MBA, AAI, ARM-P, RPLU, CPCU, is the Sr. Vice President/Professional Liability and Risk Management for Breckenridge Insurance Services. She is recognized as one of the 2018 Insurance Business America Elite Women and has been featured previously as an Insurance Business America Top Specialist Wholesale Broker. https://www.irmi.com/articles/expert-commentary/socialinflation-what-is-it-and-why-should-reinsurers-care 1

This generation of hard market is hitting coverage lines across the board, evidencing rate pressure and capacity restrictions. It started well before the Pandemic came on the scene, though COVID-19 certainly accelerated the ramp up.

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A Guide to Success in a

Challenging Market By Bob Rosenkoetter I have spent most of my working career as an E&S Broker, and over the years I’ve come to think what I really am is a marketing specialist. It never ceases to surprise me that after all the time and money invested in prospecting clients, the submission is presented to underwriters as a basic Acord form with the name and address of the prospect and maybe one line for the description of operations or a GL class code – for instance Metal Goods NOC. In search of more information, the underwriters first stop is the internet only to be greeted by pictures of stealth bombers and nuclear reactors. Success or failure in securing the account often lies in the ability to not just submit an application, but to prepare a presentation to the underwriter that is a combination of invitation and advertisement that entices the underwriter to partner with you in meeting the needs of the prospective client. RULE 1: The operations of the insured should be crystal clear. If your teenager doesn’t understand it go back to square one. I’m not saying that underwriters aren’t bright. I’m saying they have very good imaginations and if you allow theirs to wander, visions of explosions and assorted mayhem that can produce multi-million-dollar losses are imagined. Many times mission statements are presented as descriptions of operations. While the mission statement defines the objective of the organization it does not explain what activities are engaged in to achieve the mission statement.

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Often products accounts are very technical, and the descriptions are presented in highly technical terms that require a PHD to understand. These instances should be presented in layman’s terms as much as is possible. Then supplement the application with materials or brochures that explain the exact nature of the insured’s operations. Don’t rely upon the website – REVIEW IT! Does the website present a true picture of the operations, or is it embellished for sales/marketing purposes? Leave nothing to the imagination. If something needs clarifying, get out in front of it. Too often you get one shot at making an impression. If the initial response is DECLINE, reversing that initial negative opinion is a formidable and sometimes impossible task. RULE 2: Bear in mind that the 2020 reality check is that most underwriters are overwhelmed with submissions. You are competing with myriad presentations vying for the underwriter’s time and attention. Those submissions that are clear and complete offer the best likelihood for success. I have had many underwriters remark that if the agent is not willing to invest the time to present an account why should they spend any time on it? I always smirk a bit when told “This is a good account.” As a fledgling underwriter I had an agent present me with his latest offering – a good account. In a whimsical moment I asked why it was a good account. The response: “His daddy and my daddy used to go fishing together.” What choice did I have but to bind it!

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Many accounts have challenges, which is a polite way of saying problems. Don’t hope they will go unnoticed or just go away. My recommendation has always been to address the situation head on. Are there any mitigating circumstances or redeeming qualities? Has the insured taken corrective action to reduce or eliminate the possibility of the situation re-occurring? Accounts have losses. They can have frequency issues, severity or a frequency of severity. Is there a risk management tool available to deal with the situation – maybe a higher deductible / self-insured retention? And sometimes it just is what it is, and the challenge is to find a way to deal with it. RULE 3: If everything is always a rush, then nothing is a rush. Many times, a “rush” account provides a great opportunity for an order, but when everything is always a rush you only get so many cracks at the prize and once you’ve exhausted your good will it is very hard to get back. Reserve your rush requests for the most legitimate opportunities. If not successful, let the underwriter know why. As a matter of fact, anytime the underwriter has spent a lot of time and effort that didn’t result in an order, let them know how it went down. RULE 4: E&S BROKERAGE FIRMS ARE NOT INSURANCE COMPANIES. Do not send submissions to all of them in an attempt to block the market. While not all brokers have all markets, they do share many of the same markets. Many brokers will not participate in multiple broker scenarios. Company underwriters will often just decline accounts when they get multiple submissions. Of course, there are many legitimate situations where all available markets need to be approached. Extremely difficult classes of business come to mind. Be selective in approaching brokers - less probably is better. Co-ordinate the marketing effort by assigning markets. Have the brokers rank their markets, and then distribute the markets with these rankings in mind. The objective would be to give each broker a legitimate chance for success. When brokers ignore your market assignments they should be avoided in the future. If necessary require them to withdraw their submissions.

Underwriting today too often entails an “in-the-box” approach. The electronic age has resulted in online underwriting portals and sophisticated underwriting/ rating systems. However, there are gray areas and many situations that just don’t fit into the box. Clearance systems are enhanced to perform triage and programmed to reject certain buzz words. Too often todays challenge is to find someone to read your submission, do a hazard assessment and then identify an underwriting solution. This solution could include pricing, attachment point, retention, exclusions, or all of the above. Many of you have not seen a true hard market. One where capacity decreases as premiums increase. For example, let’s say a company writes 1,000 accounts at $10,000 per account. That’s $10,000,000 in premium. If the next year’s business plan calls for no premium growth but a 15% average premium increase, that means 30 accounts are looking for a new home. Now think about all carriers operating under the same constraints - high stakes musical chairs results. Insureds must compete for the available spaces, and what happens to those left standing? Consider an economic downturn where capital is at a premium. Available capital impacts available surplus. Declining capital results in not just individual insureds but the insurance sector as a whole competing for surplus. Proper account presentation is the sales/marketing tool required for success in a highly competitive environment of financial turbulence. However, whether times are good or bad, the effort you put in on the front end will be rewarded in the long run. Remember, when your renewal premium goes from $6,000 TO $60,000, THE GOOD NEWS IS YOU HAVE A RENEWAL QUOTE FOR $ 60,000. Bob Rosenkoetter is a Senior Broker with Donald Gaddis Company and can be reached at brosenkoetter@ gaddiscompany.com.

Proper account presentation is the sales/marketing tool required for success in a highly competitive environment of financial turbulence.

january 2021

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INSIGHT | associate news Thank you to our Associate Members.

Diamond Level

Platinum Level

Progressive Surplus Line Association of Illinois

Gold Level AAA Insurance Arlington/Roe Blue Cross/Blue Shield of IL Keystone Insurance Group, Inc. Pekin Insurance

Silver Level Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company Imperial PFS IMT Insurance

Nationwide West Bend Mutual Insurance Co.

Bronze Level A. J. Wayne & Associates AFCO Credit Corporation AMERISAFE AmWINS Brokerage of the Midwest, LLC Auto-Owners Insurance Co. Berkshire Hathaway Guard Insurance Companies Columbia Insurance Group Continental Western Group Donald Gaddis Company, Inc. Donegal Insurance Group Encompass Insurance Encova Insurance Erie Insurance Group Foremost Insurance Group Forreston Mutual Insurance Company Frankenmuth Insurance Grange Insurance Illinois Mine Subsidence Ins. Fund Illinois Public Risk Fund Indiana Farmers Insurance Insurance Program Managers Group J C Restoration J M Wilson Kemper 30

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Liberty Mutual/Safeco Insurance Madison Mutual Insurance Company MarshBerry Maximum Independent Brokerage, LLC Mercury Insurance Group MetLife Auto & Home Midwest Insurance Company PEOPLE Previsor Insurance ProAg Management Inc RT Specialty - Naperville ServiceMaster DSI Society Insurance Specialty Risk of America Transcom General Agency Travelers UIG - The Agent Agency United Fire Group Universal Property & Casualty Utica National Insurance Group W. A. Schickedanz Agency, Inc./Interstate Risk Placement Western National Insurance Westfield Zywave, Inc. january 2021

associate news | INSIGHT IMT Insurance Celebrates #GivingTuesday and Pledges $20,000 to Community Organizations IMT Insurance was honored to participate in #GivingTuesday on December 1, 2020! #GivingTuesday is a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of a unique blend of partners – charities, families, businesses, and individuals – to encourage philanthropy and to celebrate generosity worldwide. #GivingTuesday is held annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. IMT strives to support local communities, throughout their six-state writing territory, in an impactful way. On Tuesday, December 1, 2020, one $2,500 donation was pledged every hour from 9 AM – 4 PM, for a total of $20,000! Five of the organizations were selected from IMT’s 2020 Community Contest winners and the final three were selected from this year’s IMT Month of Giving recipients. The following organizations each received $2,500: Trinity Lutheran Church – Viking Vittles (North Branch, MN), Food Bank of the Heartland (Omaha, NE), Moravia Memorial Avenue of Flags (Moravia, IA), Harvest of Hope Food Pantry (Hillsboro, IL), Irwin Fire Department (Irwin, IA), Boys & Girls Club of Freeport & Stephenson Co. (Freeport, IL), Hunger Task Force of La Crosse (West Salem, WI), Bethel House (Whitewater, WI). We were pleased to have a number of local IMT Agencies join us in presenting the eight organization donations on #GivingTuesday. We extend a special thank you to the following IMT Agencies: Hermann Insurance (North Branch, MN), The Harry Koch Co. (Omaha, NE), Power Insurance Agency (Moravia, IA), Bruce Webb Insurance (Farmersville, IL), West Irwin Agency (Irwin, IA), Dimond Bros Insurance (Freeport, IL), West Salem Insurance (West Salem, WI), and Banco Insurance Agency – Banco, LLC (Whitewater, WI). IMT is built on deep roots and relationships in our communities, and we truly value our partnership with each of them.

SECURA Insurance Donates $25,000 to Nonprofits in Honor of its Agency Partners SECURA Insurance will donate $25,000 to ten nonprofit organizations through a #GivingTuesday contest designed to help independent insurance agencies support organizations in their communities. Agents nominated local nonprofits through the #SECURAGivesBack campaign. Ten participating agencies were selected at random to receive a $2,500 donation to a nonprofit of their choice. “We are proud to continue the #SECURAGivesBack campaign for the fourth year – especially since nonprofits need support now more than ever, “ said Kevin Klestinski, Vice President-Specialty Lines Underwriting. “#SECURAGivesBack is our way of saying thank you to our independent agents for the work they do to protect nonprofits.” january 2021

Joseph M. Wiedemann & Sons, Inc. of Illinois is the Illinois recipient and benefits Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly. For additional information about the company’s charitable giving and community support, visit secura.net/community. SECURA’s Specialty Lines office is located in Middleton, Wis.

SECURA Insurance Promotes Five Company Leaders

SECURA Insurance promoted five company leaders: Amy DeHart, Senior Vice President and Chief Actuary; Dan Ferris, Chief Legal Officer; Tripp Humston, Regional Vice President–Sales; Tim O’Brien, Vice President–Controller; and Brett Purcell, Regional Vice President–Sales. “These five individuals embody the qualities we look for in SECURA leaders,” said Dave Gross, SECURA President & CEO. “Each bring a wealth of insurance industry knowledge to guide their teams, and they will play important roles as SECURA continues growing to serve our policyholders and independent agency force.” SECURA has an A (Excellent) rating from A.M. Best, is recognized as one of Ward’s 50 top performing propertycasualty insurance companies and is a Great Place to Work Certified-company. Visit www.secura.net for more information.

J.M. Wilson Hires Cella and Tokarz as Assistant Underwriters

J.M. Wilson has announced the addition of Scott Cella as Assistant Property & Casualty Underwriter and Ryan Tokarz as Assistant Transportation Underwriter in their Arlington Heights, Illinois office. Cella and Tokarz are responsible for assisting with new and renewal quotes, corresponding with carrier underwriters, and serving independent agents in IL, IA and NE. Prior to joining J.M. Wilson Cella was a Physiotherapy Assistant for four years, as well as a Metals Department Coordinator and Elemental Spectroscopy Analyst for an additional four years. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Augustana College. Tokarz joins J.M. Wilson with four years of experience as an Underwriting Operations Associate. Prior to that, he was a Sales Manager for eight years. A Kent State University graduate, Tokarz earned his bachelor’s degree in Interpersonal Communication.   Founded in 1920, J.M. Wilson is a Managing General Agency and Surplus Lines Broker providing independent insurance agents access to specialty markets. J.M. Wilson can provide coverage for standard and hard-toplace Commercial Transportation, Property & Casualty, Brokerage, Marine, Personal lines and Surety. For more information about J.M. Wilson, call (800) 666-5692 or visit www.jmwilson.com.

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INSIGHT | agency members in the news IIA of IL Agency Member Celebrates Milestone Anniversary Harnist Insurance Agency, Inc., in Belleville celebrated their 75th anniversary in 2020. The agency was formed in 1945 by Joe Harnist, Sr., and his wife Ruth. The agency is now a third-generation agency with Joe Harnist, II, and Joe Harnist, III, working in the office. Congratulations! If your agency is celebrating an anniversary, send the information to Rachel Romines, Insight Editor, at rromines@iiaofil.org.

Harnist Family

DSP Insurance Services Voted Best Agency to Work For Midwest DSP Insurance Services in Schaumburg has been named a 2020 Insurance Journal Best Agency to Work For. DSP’s employees promoted their workplace - which has 75 employees and annual revenues of between $11 million and $25 million - as being one of the finest, leading to the agency’s selection as the 2020 Silver Best Agency to Work For in the Midwest. DSP colleagues lauded the personal attention paid to them by the agency’s management. “I don’t think there has ever been a time where I’ve crossed paths with the president of the agency where he has not emphasized how much he appreciates me and the work I do for the agency,” one employee said. In an email to Insurance Journal, DSP President Steve Webster underscored employee comments, stating that the agency’s leadership is “humbled by our employees’ nomination and very proud of them and our culture. By supporting our people, we feel it translates to a great customer experience as well as work experience.”

EVERY RISK IS AN OPPORTUNITY COMMERCIAL TRANSPORTATION | BROKERAGE | MARINE PROPERTY & CASUALTY | SURETY | PERSONAL LINES

To other agency owners with an interest in becoming an employer of choice, Webster advised: “Never stop looking to improve, learn and grow and most of all … empower those around you.” Congratulations to DSP Insurance Services!

(800) 666-5692 | JMWILSON.COM 100th Insurance Insight CMYK.indd 32JM Wilson insight

Webster said the teamwork employees embrace is part of the agency’s core values. DSP’s employees are what makes it special, he added. “They care. It’s not just a job, it’s a profession,” for them.

4/3/20 8:17 AM

january 2021

iia of il news | INSIGHT

Education Classes january

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Pre-Licensing Course - Property & Casualty Virtual E&O Roadmap to Personal Auto & Umbrella Insurance Webinar E&O Risk Management Webinar E&O - Roadmap to Cyber & Privacy Insurance Webinar CISR-Elements of Risk Management Virtual Agents E&O Webinar E&O-Roadmap to Homeowners Endorsements Webinar Pre-Licensing Course - Life & Health Virtual CISR-Personal Auto Virtual E&O:Identity Theft, Red Flags, Money Laundering Webinar Culture, Ethics, and E&O Webinar E&O - Roadmap to Policy Analysis Webinar CIC - Agency Management Virtual E&O Risk Management Webinar

Farm Agents Council a division of the Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois

91st Annual Mid-Winter Meeting January 28-29

february

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Pre-Licensing Course - Property & Casualty Virtual E&O Roadmap to Personal Auto & Umbrella Ins. Webinar Flood Insurance and the NFIP Webinar CISR - Insuring Personal Residential Property Virtual E&O Roadmap To Cyber & Privacy Insurance Webinar Agents E&O Webinar Pre-Licensing Course - Life & Health Virtual CISR - Commercial Casualty 1 Virtual E&O - Identity Theft, Red Flags, Money Laundering Webinar E&O Risk Management Webinar CISR- Insuring Commercial Property Virtual Ethics: Essentials for the Insurance Producer Webinar E&O - Roadmap to Policy Analysis Webinar CIC - Commercial Property Virtual

Virtual â&#x20AC;˘ 6 hours IL CE Available

New Members

The Importance of Ethical Behavior and the Farm Insurance Agent in These Crazy Times

member agency

Legislative Update If it Moves on the Farm - It Presents a Risk

Go to ILFarmAgents.com for details. january 2021

Formea Insurance Group, Inc. Chatham, IL

associate member - copper IBI - Insurance Brokers, Inc. Greenwood, IN insight

INSIGHT | classifieds for the insurance professional by the insurance professional

AGENCY/AGENTS/PRODUCERS WANTED

02. Forest Park/Oak Park agency for over 60 years, will meet your needs by providing space, markets, marketing & sales support, automation, merging with or purchasing your agency. Perpetuation/ Succession Plans, BuySell Agreements also available. We have experienced, educated and dedicated staff for you and your clients. Have access to our numerous companies, office services and many other resources. Retain ownership in your book with contingency. Please look closely at us- we are an agency you want to do business with! We’ve done it before, we know how- we make it easy! Visit our website at forestagency.com/agents.html, or call for a confidential discussion and a list of Agency benefits. Dan Browne will provide an agency evaluation/appraisal at little cost to you. Please call:

Dan Browne or Cathy Hall Forest Insurance (708) 383-9000 www.forestinsured.com/mergers-acquisitions

OPPORTUNITIES/SPACE AVAILABLE/RETAIN OWNERSHIP

13. We are a 100 year old Northbrook agency looking to discuss any mutually beneficial opportunity. Our producers, mergers, clusters and agency purchases receive 50% commissions on new and renewal business without any expenses. We can provide: office space, phones, agency management system, service renewals and changes. The companies we represent are: Badger Mutual, Employers Mutual, General Casualty, Guide One, Hartford, Kemper, Progressive, Rockford Mutual, Safeco, State Auto, Travelers and Met Life. Contact:

Nancy Solomon Martini, Miller & Schloss, Inc. (847) 291-1313 Ron@martini-miller.com

AGENCY WANTED

20. Since 2004, Central Illinois Agents Group LLC has been providing independent agents with a variety of markets with contingency opportunities. Agents have availability to several markets that they may not be able to sustain or maintain on their own. We have markets for personal, commercial, agricultural and crop insurance lines. Let us help you get to the next level.

Visit www.ciagonline.com for contact information.

This is Rick Hemphill, I have had the LegalShield booth at your convention for the last number of years. I have been an insurance agent for the last 44 plus years, and before that I was a police officer. Now more than ever, I believe our clients need the LegalShield products. LegalShield has: •Family Legal Plans

•Identity Theft Plans

•Plans for Truck drivers

•Law enforcement Plans

•Small Business Plans

•Supplement’s, like the Gun Owners Supplement

As a former police officer if you have a concealed carry I really suggest you take a look at this. Rick Hemphill Hemphill Financial Group 314-517-6836 rhemphill@hfgstl.com 34

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january 2021

Commercial | Personal | Farm-Ag | Specialty

Making Insurance Genuine SECURAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team of insurance experts is making insurance genuine. They are here to support you and your clients. Our underwriting teams are quick to reply, open-minded, and know their stuff. Plus they are backed by our caring claims group who will get your clients back on their feet.

Interested in building a relationship? Contact us at secura.net/contact.

Hear from our experts. Want to learn more about what SECURA has to offer? Scan the QR code for more information about the SECURA team.

Expect big things in workers’ compensation. Most classes approved, nationwide. It pays to get a quote from Applied.® For information call (877) 234-4450 or visit auw.com. Follow us at bigdoghq.com.