What Opportunities Do Insurance Agents Face in 2014? – Part 1

What Opportunities Do Insurance Agents Face in 2014? – Part 1

Many changes affected insurance agents in 2013, including the healthcare reform, carrier price and underwriting changes, and maximizing the use of social media. These changes presented challenges, and with those challenges came opportunities for insurance agents to tackle. In the first part of this 2-part blog post, we’ll look at just a few of the opportunities that insurance agents face in in 2014, and how to tackle them.

Perhaps the biggest challenge going into this year is how confusing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is. This is true for not only individuals, but for your business clients as well. The opportunity this raises for you is the chance to educate your clients on their choices. Many independent agents and brokers are taking this opportunity to get trained and certified to help consumers enroll in health plans offered as part of the ACA, and educate their clients about choices outside the exchange.

Another challenge agents and brokers face is the time-consuming demands of social media use. This presents an excellent opportunity though, as social media is a portal to unique customer engagement. Numerous studies have shown that clients prefer that you reach them in different ways. Agents and brokers who take advantage of social media, and do it right, are not only seeing increased customer engagement, but an accompanying jump in profitability.

As technological and healthcare landscapes change, business owners are often feel that messages are lost in translation. This presents the next opportunity for insurance agents. Your customers don’t always understand insurance; why or how certain policies apply to them. But you can teach them, and in the meantime, earn their loyalty. According to Zywave’s 2013 Broker Services Survey, more than 5,000 businesses have three essential expectations from their brokers: providing claims-submission support, timely delivery or certificates of insurance and ID cards, and helping the organization become a more educated insurance buyer. However, 38% of the survey’s respondents were dissatisfied with their brokers due to lack of client education.

Understanding these challenges and opportunities as you head into 2014 can help you tremendously when servicing your clients. At PLRisk Advisors, our team of seasoned professionals has the depth and breadth of knowledge to help our agency partners secure the best quality coverage for their clients. Our featured policies include: Errors & Omissions insurance across a variety of professions, Directors & Officers insurance for private and public companies, Employment Practices Liability (EPLI), and more. Please contact us for more information at (855) 403-5982.