29 minute read
My New Markets
Logic & Language and Forms & Facts Homeowners Coverage Gaps? Here Are Some ‘Mower’
In 2018, the Insurance Journal published an article titled “Lawnmower Injuries Remain Source of Serious Injury and High By Bill Wilson Costs.” A study cited in the article stated each day during the mowing season, about 30 people are injured or maimed in lawnmower accidents, with the average cost of injuries requiring medical attention $37,000. This doesn’t include lost time, pain and suffer ing, etc. that may also be recoverable.
It’s easy to see how a lawnmower injury involving negligence on the part of the owner or operator can potentially result in a claim exceeding the standard $100,000 homeowner policy liability limit. But even an average medical claim can cause financial disaster for a homeowner whose policy doesn’t cover the claim at all.
Y ou'd be astonished at how tenuous coverage can be for the use of a riding lawn mower. Let’s compare the policy language between the three most recent Insurance Services Office (ISO) HO 00 03 (HO3) forms.
The 1991 edition of the ISO HO3 extends liability coverage to a riding lawnmower “Used to service an ‘insured’s residence.”
The 2000 edition of the ISO HO3 extends liability coverage to a riding lawnmower “Used SOLELY to service an ‘insured’s residence.”
The 2011 edition of the ISO HO3 extends liability coverage to a riding lawnmower “Used solely to service a residence.” To illustrate the differences, let’s apply them to a claim scenario. I’m cutting my yard and my riding mower runs out of gas. My next-door neighbor has a riding mower with a full tank, so I use his.
While using it, the mower overturns into a ditch, the blade comes off, and another neighbor is severely injured. (This actually happened except that there was no injury.)
If I ha ve the 1991 HO3, I’m covered while using my own, or any other, riding mower on my residence premises. As long as I use the vehicle at some point to service my own residence, I’m covered using it anywhere else in the world.
If I have the 2000 HO3, I have no coverage because my neighbor’s riding mower isn’t used solely to service MY (“an ‘insured’s’”) residence premises.
If I have the 2011 HO3, I might have cov
erage. As long as the riding mower is used solely to service “a” residence, for example his and mine, I’m covered. But what if the neighbor had used the riding mower to mow the lawn at the church immediately behind his home? Now there’s no coverage because the mower hasn’t been used solely to service a residence.
H ow many of your customers are aware of this? How many of your staff members are aware of this given the likelihood that you may represent multiple homeowners insurers with varying ISO edition dates or even their own proprietary forms?
Before we move on, what if my nextdoor neighbor is also sued as the owner and servicer of the riding mower in this claim? Would his HO3 cover him?
If he has the 1991 HO3, he’s covered if his riding mower is ever used to service his residence premises.
If he has the 2000 HO3, he has no co v erage because, now that the riding mower has been used t o service a residence other than his own, he has no coverage now or in the future.
If he has the 2011 HO3, again, i t depends on whether his riding mower has been used to service any premises that are not residential premises, such as the church property behind his home. But wait, as it turns out, several neighbors had mowed that property, but my next-door neighbor had only mowed the parsonage lawn. Since the parsonage is a residence, NOW he has coverage.
D oesn’t this all make logical sense? Imagine explaining this to a customer who asks simply, “Does my homeowners insurance cover me on my riding mower?”
Gi ven that Halloween is fast approach ing, let’s examine one more liability scenario . In my old neighborhood, one of the residents would attach a flatbed trailer to his large John Deere lawn tractor, cover it in hay, and haul small children through out the neighborhood trick or treating. Wha t if one of them falls off and suffers a traumatic brain or cervical injury?
If he has the 1991 HO3, he ’s covered as long as he has used the riding mower to service his own residence premises.
If he has the 2000 HO3, he has no coverage, nor will he have any coverage from now on when he mows his own yard because the riding mower is no longer used SOLELY to service his residence premises.
If he has the 2011 HO3, he has no coverage because he clearly is not using the v ehicle to service a residence of any kind.
So far, we’ve been talking hypothetically and only about the homeowners liability exposure. Similar language is used to determine coverage for first-party property damage to a motor vehicle that services the premises. To show you the extremes to which this language can be taken, consider an actual claim brought to my attention last year.
An insured bought a $6,000 lawn tractor and put it in his garage overnight. The next morning, he discovered it was stolen. The claim was denied with a rationale it wouldn’t matter which edition ISO HO3 he had. According to the adjuster, because the vehicle had never been “used to service” the premises, he had no coverage under the HO3-s motor vehicle exclusion. It may seem ludicrous, but it is correct if you accept a literal reading of the policy.
Tha t brings us to soapbox time. Is the complexity of this coverage/exclusion warranted? We only looked at the ISO form but there are far more variations in non-ISO policies. Think of the millions of homeowners who use riding lawn mowers — most unaware that they're riding around on a potentially catastrophic homeowners exclusion.
Should ALL uses of riding mowers be covered? Of course not. There’s actually a lawn mower racing association and cover age for that activity isn’t warranted under a homeo wners policy. However, most other uses probably are, even the foolish idea of hauling young children around in the dark on Halloween eve.
While w e don’t have time to explore it here, take my word that there is potentially more liability coverage in an ISO home owners policy for a four-year-old riding an A TV at 40 mph than there is a 40-year-old riding a lawn mower at 4 mph. The only requirement for the use of an owned recreational vehicle is that it be used on an “insured location.” If it’s non-owned, the coverage is worldwide. There is no “resi dence” limitation. Nor is there any sense t o how motor vehicle coverage applies in most homeowners policies. Shouldn’t we fix this?
Wilson, CPCU, ARM, AIM is the founder and CEO of InsuranceCommentary.com and the author of four books, including “When Words Collide: Resolving Insurance Coverage and Claims Disputes.”
The Most Expensive Data Breach You’ll Ever Have
Last week, a producer in one of my classes was distracted beyond belief — fidg eting with his mobile device, sending emails, and texting. As happens to most of us when we’re By Randy Schwantz nervous, his leg was shaking like a tree in the middle of a Texas thunderstorm.
I tried t o get his attention twice, to no avail. So, this time, I screamed, “Bob, what the hell is going on over there?”
He looked up with a sordid frown on his face and said, “Someone hacked my bank account.”
“Oh man, I’m sorry. How much did they get?”
“About $600 so far,” which to him was more than beer change.
“But, I think I have it under control,” Bob reaffirmed himself.
That is a breach. Someone broke in, took Bob’s money, and left. But it’s nothing compared to the data breach most agency owners suffer every year.
When someone doesn ’t observe a law, agreement, or code of conduct, it’s a breach.
By definition, when a producer doesn’t enter prospects into your pipeline system, that is a data breach.
Y ou’re probably laughing and thinking, “Randy, that’s not a data breach. That’s just producers being producers.”
Right, and when a Russian hacker bores a hole through your firewall and steals your money, you’ll say, “that’s not a breach, that’s just Russian hackers being Russian hackers.”
So why is this the most expensive data breach you’ll probably ever have?
In economic terms, it’s pretty simple.
When you don’t have valuable data from your producers’ pipeline, you have to listen to B.S. litany: • H ow hard they work. • All the great things they’re working on. • All the c alls they’re making. • H ow they will “absolutely” make their numbers.
The problem is, you have no way to validate, verify, or substantiate any of it until it is too late.
I t’s not until they miss their quarterly goal, then their annual goals, then their decade goals, and ultimately their career goals, that it’s too late.
Y ou categorize this in your mind as not necessary, just a nice to have. But when you dig deeper, this costs you not just thousands of dollars every year, it costs you millions over your business’ lifetime.
The ir ony is you pay $50,000 to $100,000 a year to make sure someone is managing your accounts receivable and accounts payable along with updating your P&L.
Nice job! You’ve done a great job of recording and reviewing the past. We know, only a fool would argue against doing that.
But you flunked the test of managing your future because of the most horrific data breach possible.
Y ou made it okay for your producers to tell you, “Kiss it, I’m not putting my data there.”
You say, “Not a problem,” but your sales meetings are becoming even more lifeless.
And y our administrative assistant scowls every Friday when you say, “Need that pipeline report for Monday’s meeting.”
Because she knows it’s code words for
“Track down every producer and ask them to update the spreadsheet.”
The pr oblem with the spreadsheet is simple — it’s naked.
M ost agencies update their spreadsheets with: • Name of the business; • (Maybe) a buyer’s name; • P otential revenue (probably premium); • One line of poorly wri tten notes; • No inf ormation about the incumbent; • No inf ormation about the risk.
There’s nothing you can sink your teeth into, and it drives you mad.
Y ou get to the sales meeting on Monday morning and review the list with the team.
Charlie has a vivid response, “Pretty good.”
You ask him, “What do you think of your chances of closing this?”
Charlie states, “Probably better than 50/50.”
You confirm, “Do you have carriers lined up?”
Charlie verifies, “Yes, sir.”
You ask him, “Need any help?”
Charlie ends with, “No, I think we’re good, sir.”
Then you repeat the same motions with the next producer.
W ould the meeting be more useful if you had data to strategize how to win the deal together? Would it be more beneficial if your producers captured your competitors’ proposals and put them in your system? Tha t way, you could then quickly review them and see just how great, or sorry, the competition stacks up.
W ould the sales meetings be more effective if instead of the “kiss it” attitude, your producers shared information on their competitor’s agents to figure out how they can stand out?
W ould it be more advantageous if they knew whom the incumbent was so that you could help your producer win by broker of record instead of quoting on the account?
W ould you feel more in control of your producers if their goals and accounts sold were in your data system, so you could instantly review their progress with these goals?
I’ m sure you think this is foolish and that it’s overkill. But I’m 100% certain that Bill Belichick, Nick Saban, and Mike Krzyzewski couldn’t run their organization without player data. I’m 100% confident that Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Jordan Speith wouldn’t be caught dead without their humidity, wind direction, and stimpmeter reading data. By defini tion, data is facts and statistics collected t ogether. It’s the antithesis of B.S.
Schwantz is founder of The Wedge Group. He’s also the author of the book Agency Growth Machine. Phone: 214-446-3209. Email: randy@thewedge.net.
Mackenzie McNamara, CLCS - Area Assistant Vice President
at Gallagher & Satisfied Insurance Journal Subscriber
Thanks to Mackenzie for the kind words and thank YOU for reading.
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Hired & Non-Owned Auto - Delivery Market Detail: Pacific Excess Insurance Marketing Inc., (www.pacificexcess.com) has markets for clients who want to offer delivery due to COVID-19 restrictions on social distancing, including restaurants, grocery stores, and other food delivery. It will also now consider liquor stores. Availability of HNOA six to 12 month policies. Pacific Excess carrier’s application must be used. No cannabis operations. Minimum premiums, taxes and fees apply. Available limits: Minimum $100,000, maximum $2 million Carrier: Unable to disclose, non-admitted States: Ariz., Calif., Colo., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Iowa, Ks., Mo., Neb., Nev., N.J., N.M., Okla., Ore., Texas, Utah, Wash., and Wisc. Contact: Juli Queen at 800-222-5582 or e-mail: jqueen@pacificexcess.com
Credit Insurance Market Detail: Meridian Finance Group (www.meridianfinance.com) is a specialized broker of trade credit insurance (also kno wn as accounts receivable insurance) as well as political risk insurance and relat ed kinds of coverage. Source for receivable put options and other non-insurance credit risk management tools. Arranger of cross-border trade credit and other international financial services. Available limits: As needed Carrier: Unable to disclose States: All states Contact: Greg Mendell at 310-260-2130 or e-mail: gmendell@meridianfinance.com
Small Business Workers' Compensation Market Detail: Pie Insurance (agencies. pieinsurance.com) was born from the intersection of technology, data, machine learning, and insurance. This combination allows the company to offer workers’ compensation coverage at a competi tive price to almost 70% of class codes. Co verage is custom made for small business clients - save with pricing and coverage made exclusively for small business owners. Pie offers coverage rated A- by AM Best and backed by Sirius Group—providing 75 years of insurance. Pie is rated Excellent on Trustpilot by customers for the experience and service. Protection for clients’ employees if a workplace accident does happen through a simple claims process to help the injured team member get back to work. Available limits: As needed Carrier: Unable to disclose, admitted and non-admitted available States: Alaska, Ariz., Ark., Calif., Colo., Dela., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ks., Ky., La., Md., Mich., Miss., Mo., Neb., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.M., N.Y., N.C., Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Texas, Utah, Vt., Va., W. Va., and Wisc. Contact: Rebecca Sunshine-DeWitt at 855- 705-2716 or e-mail: contact@pieinsurance. com
Expediting COVID-19 Related Risks Market Detail: Breckenridge Insurance Services (www.breckis.com) has experienced both small and large companies st epping in to help fight COVID-19. Many professional liability, health care, and life science markets are fast-tracking submis sions for new or changing risks that are startin g or modifying operations to help with the pandemic relief. Breckenridge Insurance Services brokers is expediting coverage placements as needed to help, including for the following types of risks: Retired health care providers (docs, EMTs,
nurses, etc.) coming out of retirement to help aid in treatment who need malpractice; pharma/nutraceuticals producing medic ine for treatment and/or developing new meds and vaccines; medical product manufacturers (or manufacturers transi tioning from regular products to needed pr oducts) – things like respiratory devices, ventilators, masks, testing kits, etc. as oftentimes current coverage will not cover the transition as a new class of products; clinical research organizations; clinical trials of COVID-19 drugs and/or vaccines; health care facilities – labs testing for the virus, drive through testing facilities, new “transition” hospitals (i.e., hotels, etc. being transitioned to care for non-critical patients); engineers helping to design new products; scientists; biohazard clean up and medical waste companies (GL/PL/ Pollution); telemed companies; contractors pro for those helping to build medical facilities; technology, website and/or communications companies providing key support; and other professionals helping. To help expedite submissions, please attach the following: Any governmental contracts that they are working under; resume(s) of key personnel (or a narrative of their experience); If they are an existing business, loss runs (even if they are from a product they are transitioning from). To review if your clients’ current policies are properly covering them or if they are a new entity, please reach out to your broker or email us at partner@breckis.com. Available limits: As needed Carrier: Tokio Marine Kiln (wholly owned parent company of WNC) States: All states Contact: Breckenridge marketing at 855-728-8822 or e-mail: partner@breckis. com
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To Improve Profitability and Sales, ‘Fire’ Your Small Commercial W e all know about the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule. It also applies when analyzing the Accounts profitability and the work required for an agency’s book of business. Roughly 20% of the accounts generate 80% of the revenue, and 20% of the accounts take 80% of the staff’s time to service them. Problems occur when the accounts that require a lot of service work are not the ones gen erating considerable r evenue. By Catherine Oak and
To improve profitability, the agency needs to focus on medium and large commercial accounts only. There is not much margin to sell and service small accounts. Many of Bill Schoeffler
continued on page 46
continued from page 45 those accounts could also cost the agency in profits.
When analy zing the profitability of a business, it is essential to consider the production costs and the servicing costs. “Costs” can involve time or money. There is a minimal amount of time required by the producer and the service staff to acquire a new piece of business. The smaller the account, the more likely the agency will lose money to acquire it. Once the account is a client, the amount of time required to service the account, and the renewal commission paid to the producer will determine its profitability. For a small account, a few hours of service work and a 30% renewal commission to the producer will not let the account break even for your agency.
Define Small
The definition of “small” will vary based on the geographic area (urban/suburban/ rural) and the local business demographics (type and size of businesses), as well as the resources of the agency (talent of sales/ staff and available carriers). In New York City, there are a lot of large accounts that can be written. In Truckee, Calif., (Lake Tahoe area), a good-sized account might be a local restaurant. Agencies without adequate resources (talent and market access) will not be competitive on large accounts, regardless of their location.
Each agency needs to establish its own definition of size. For example, a small account can be defined as one that generates less than $1,000 in commissions, or $10,000 in premium. The threshold can be adjusted periodically. As an alternative, the accounts in the bottom 20% by size in the book of business can be defined as the “small” accounts.
How to Handle Small Accounts
Once the small accounts are identified, a game plan needs to be established. There are three common approaches to handle them: 1) establish a Select Business Unit, 2) outsource the service work, or 3) sell or non-renew the small accounts (“fire” the accounts).
The first step to consider is the role of the producer for small accounts. It might be tough to implement, but pro ducers should not be involved with small accoun ts. Going forward, commissions for accounts written should be subject to a minimal size threshold in order to be compensated, including renewals.
A book of business r eport for each pro ducer should be run in descending order b y commission. This will help establish how much each producer will be affected financially by not compensating them for the small accounts. It is also helpful to determine how much time they spend on those accounts.
If there is a real financial impact on individual producers, the level may need to be lo wered, or their commissions might need to be grandfathered on existing accounts for a period of time. For new business, some agencies will pay a first year only commission on the small accounts, but nothing on renewals.
One noticeable benefit of removing small accounts from a producer’s book is the amount of time it will save the pro ducers. Even if only a couple of hours per y ear are spent per account, that time will add up. This approach lets producers have more time for new sales and cross-selling.
The time saved not handling small accounts can be spent to acquire one or two large accounts that could easily offset the income lost from the small accounts.
Set Up a Select Business Unit
It is very common for commercial accounts under a certain level to be handled only by service staff in a specialized commer cial lines department. It should be called the “Select” Busines Unit (SBU) or “special” as opposed to “small,” as sometimes the business owner put in this department might feel they are less worthy of the agency’s attention.
The SBU ser vice personnel have responsibilities similar to that of personal lines service staff. In other words, the SBU personnel completely handle the account once it is already on the books. They are often the ones to initially sell the accounts as well. Responsibilities include rating and preparing quotes, placement and marketing (new and renewal), day-to-day client service and insurance company rela tionships associated with client service.
If an agency chooses to let producers continue to sell new small accounts, once the account is sold, the producer should introduce the SBU service person that will handle the account going forward to the client. This can be done in a cover letter sent to the client with the new policy, or the service person will contact the client via the telephone to introduce themselves.
Outsource the Service Work
Instead of an internal small business department, some agencies will outsource the service work. There are a few different continued on page 48
continued from page 46 routes for outsourcing service work, so understanding the costs and types of service offered is imperative.
The first means of outsour cing to consider is the service departments that some of the insurance companies offer. These are reasonably cost-effective and specialize in the clients’ policies since they write them. The one downside is that most agencies will have multiple carriers, and not all carriers offer this type of service. That means only a portion of the small accounts can be serviced this way. Also, clients need to be “trained” to directly contact the insurance carrier for their service work rather than calling the agency first.
Another approach is to contract with businesses that provide outsourced services to insurance agencies. There are differences between these companies, but generally, they can provide full customer service to an agency, and it can be done seamlessly. Most of these services send the work offshore to India, China or the Republic of the Philippines. These services are usually not cheap, but with a large enough book of business, they can be cost-effective. Some services charge a split of the commissions and handle it from start to finish, as well as account rounding. Patra is such a service some of our clients have used, and they charge 50% of the commissions. Other services exist, such as ResourcePro and eDesk.
‘Fire’ the Accounts
Agencies should consider getting rid of some or all small accounts. This can be done by a combination of non-renewing the accounts or selling them. This will be a reduction of revenue, at least in the short term, but it will improve profitability and establish the platform for better future performance.
Oft en, the smaller clients can be challenging to deal with, take up a lot of time to service or can be a placement issue that usually ends up in an excess and surplus lines (E&S) market. As accounts renew, producers and service staff should be able to recommend the non-renewal of “problem” accounts. These would be accounts that are costing the agency a lot of time compared to the commissions generated. If there are just a handful of “problem” accounts, they can be referred to a competitor down the street. This approach makes the “termination” more amicable.
Although a non-renewal is lost commission to the agency, when the staff is allowed to clean up the book and rid the agency of these headaches gracefully, then the staff will have more time to focus on tasks that help the agency, including new business sales and cross-selling. It will also improve the morale of the staff.
If the ag ency has a sizeable book of small accounts, it can be packaged up and sold. Some agencies specialize and like to work with small accounts. New agencies are also willing to buy accounts to increase their volume. This can be a win-win-win for the buyer, seller and clients. Regarding price, everything is negotiable, but a 50% split of renewal commissions for two or three years is usually fair for the buyer and seller.
Summary
For an agency to make money on small accounts, they have to be handled less, more efficiently and by fewer people, i.e., no producer involvement. Also, using less expensive commercial lines service staff or account managers for the SBU is recommended if the accounts are handled internally. A specialized unit allows that service staff to gain more knowledge in small accounts since many are often harder to place and can end up being placed with an E&S wholesaler.
I t is always recommended that produc ers are paid for what they do. However, it is equally importan t to make sure that what they “do” cannot be performed by a per fectly qualified commercial lines account manag er or CSR. Producer compensation expense for small accounts often makes small accounts much less profitable for an agency.
Agencies that focus on medium and large accounts will find that producers and service staff have more time to improve service, generate new sales and cross-sell accounts. The best place to start is to “fire” problem accounts and delegate small com mercial accounts to a specialized internal ag ency unit or to someone else outside the agency.
Oak is the founder of the consulting firm, Oak & Associates, based in Northern California and Central Oregon. Schoeffler is an associate of the firm. Oak & Associates specializes in financial and management consulting for independent insurance agencies, including valuations, mergers/acquisitions, sales and marketing planning as well as perpetuation planning. Phone: 707-935-6565. Email: catoak@gmail.com.
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Think You’re Not an Influencer? Think Again
By Jessica Jeffress
You don’t have to be a ‘person of influence’ to be influential. — Scott Adams, Dilbert
Every year my agency participates in a conference called the Global Leadership Summit. One of the themes this past year was “influence,” which was defined as “the capacity to have an effect on the character, development or behavior of someone or something.”
This concept of inf luence really resonated with me. The summit speakers said anyone who has influence is a leader. While many of us may not consider ourselves as leaders in the traditional sense, we all have influence. And the argument can be made that as a result of having influence, we are all leaders.
Sk eptical? Hang with me.
One da y the NetVU executive board was discussing member engagement and why people choose to attend chapter meet ings, our annual Accelerate conf erence or a webinar. It quickly became obvious that our members do these things because they are leaders — because they want to make themselves and their firms bet ter. They are also influencers, bec ause, whether they realize it or not, every time they share a best practice, a tip or a trick, they are influencing others.
Change for the Better
During the pandemic, we’ve each had a huge influence on the world around us: in our homes and communities, and with our employers. Sheltering in place, working from home, using technology in ways we’ve never used it before and caring for others has influenced our world. We’ve worked hard to flatten the curve, kept our operations moving and kept kids focused on schoolwork. We’ve even spread joy, happi ness and laughter with others durin g virtual happy hours. It hasn’t always been easy. Many of us have probably wanted to cry a little, or rip out our rapidly growing hair to express frustration and anxiety. But throughout this period, we’ve all — directly or indirectly —had an enormous influence on the world by changing our behavior.
As a r esult of exercising this influence, each of us is a leader, and leaders make things happen.
Ma ybe you’re thinking: “That’s not me.” “I’ve never set an example for anyone.” “Nobody follows me.” “I’m terrified of speaking in public.” “I’m quiet in meetings.” “I don’t want to be the center of attention.” “I’m not a leader.”
I r ecently ran across a quote from Scott Adams, who created the comic strip Dilbert: “You don’t have to be a ‘person of influence’ to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they’ve taught me.”
Even a Novice
I remember going to a first-time attendee session at my first NetVU Accelerate conference and seeing all these people who had so much passion and confidence. They were strong leaders and they had a ton of influence, and then there was little ol’ me, the millennial with two years of agency experience and no clue what anyone was talking about.
I took a notebook full of notes with a ton of ideas for things to change or implement. Some were very simple, while others were pretty comprehensive. And then I was on my way home from the conference and the reality hit me. I felt very alone and faced many challenges. I had a ton of work waiting for me at the office. I had taken notes about some things I wasn’t confident I knew much about. And there were many at my agency with much more experience. Sound familiar?
But I also had a network of people who had been in that same boat that were supporting me. I leaned on the friends I’d made at NetVU, and guess what happened? Our agency implemented a ton of changes that made our organization better. The experience made me better too. My professional network of friends helped me see the influence I could have on my agency, and it helped me become a stronger leader.
T ake advantage of the influence you have.
You don’t have to be a manager or an agency principal to have influence. You don’t have to be the most senior staff member. You don’t have to be an extrovert. You just have to have the passion to make things better, and the courage to use your influence to do just that.
Jeffress is associate vice president – business insurance and employee benefits —at Peel & Holland and chairman of the Network of Vertafore Users (NetVU.com).
AN OPEN LETTER F R O M AMERICA’S PROFESSIONAL INDEPENDENT AGENTS
To Our Carrier Partners:
This is a time of challenge for both carriers and the independent agents who sell their insurance products. A unique and unprecedented crisis is forcing all of us to innovate solutions to problems we have not had to deal with before.
As 2020 began to unfold, the United States and the whole world were confronted with the effects of the coronavirus crisis. There was the initial surge of COVID-19 cases, followed by what appeared to be an easing, and then the most recent resurgence of the virus.
Agencies have faced economic uncertainty and potential hardship as we continue to serve our clients while doing the work needed to stabilize the market and be the representatives of carriers to make that happen. At the same time, we face growth challenges as a result of the new business landscape.
We are thankful for the various actions taken by a multitude of carriers to support us, their appointed agents, during this difficult time.
It is in the interest of all in our industry to do what we can to ensure financial stability going forward. In this challenging environment, a stable, profitable book is as important as reasonable expectations for growth, especially given the COVID impact.
It is important that we all adapt to the new challenges of an insurance marketplace that has changed significantly and will continue to change going forward. Some of what worked in 2019 will not necessarily be effective in 2020 and beyond. We will continue to look to our carrier partners to support our joint efforts to ensure our mutual success.
