When searching for home and auto insurance, a consumer has many options as to who to do business with. Television commercials and online advertisements abound in today’s society. Everyone needs insurance, and insurance companies are battling for clients
In the world of insurance agents, there are two types of agents: captive agents and independent agents.
Captive insurance agents represent one company and independent insurance agents represent multiple companies. The largest and most well-known insurance companies (All State, Farmers, American Family) go only through their own “captive” agents. Other well known but less known insurance companies (Met Life, Travelers, Hartford, Progressive, etc) go through independent insurance agents.
When you walk into an office of a captive insurance agent, he/she will quote you with the one company that they carry. When you walk into an office of an independent insurance agent, he/she will shop all the companies that he/she represents and set you up with the company that matches you the best in terms of lowest rates and best coverages.
The insurance market is very complex. When looking for a rate quote, there are numerous factors which these companies must consider. Because some companies look at different factors in different ways, insurance rates can greatly vary for one person between different companies.
For example, let’s say that Suzie wants an auto insurance quote. She has a pretty good driving record. She has not had any major violations in the past few years. Two years ago, when she was at college and would travel to her parents’ home and back on the weekends, she picked up two defective vehicle tickets.
The officer could have given her speeding tickets, but he reduced them down for her.
When Suzie went to get an insurance rate quote, she found that most insurance companies will give her higher insurance rates because of those two tickets. She would have to pay hundreds of more dollars each year. As her agent continued searching for her, he found an insurance company that would not rate her higher because of the tickets. This particular company does not rate ‘defective vehicles’ as anything abnormal, thus though she had two tickets, she had access to the very lowest rates the company had to offer and she was able to save hundreds of dollars each year.
If Suzie had gone to an agent who was captive, he would have set her up with the one rate that he had to offer. She would have missed out on the money that she was going to save.
The more proactive the insurance agent is, the more he can search for ways to save his clients money. It is a good idea to not only seek an independent insurance agent, but a very proactive insurance agent. Understanding the difference between these two types of insurance agents can save you a lot of money on your insurance. colorado insurance insurance
