All one has to do is to look at the cover of insurance industry publications to determine that this industry is very, very boring. For instance Rough Notes rarely has women, minorities or young people on its cover. Granted most insurance brokerage owners are white males over a certain age, but isn’t there any way to find people who are breaking the mold? I guess not successful people.

Insurance companies also seem to all operate the same way which is to make it difficult to purchase their products. If we ever got past the use of standardized applications such as those provided by Acord and standardized policy wordings such as those provided by ISO, this industry would be forced to be more innovative and maybe find people who have a different way of thinking about things. What do you think? Let us hear your opinion on whether or not standardization is one reason this industry has changed since the passage of the McCarran Ferguson act in 1945….

I am sure that most individuals associated in any way to the insurance industry are tired of hearing the groans from agents/brokers about when the soft market will end. Now don’t get me wrong I too remember how easy the hard market was, when there were plenty of submissions and one could take their time, sell based on coverage or even turn down business that was undesirable. The soft market among other things tests insurance professionals and weeds out the weakest. I like to think of the soft market as its own version of Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest.
I love the challenge of the soft market where underwriters and brokers alike are required to be innovative, competitively priced and above all offer exceptional customer service.
I think that the insurance industry has effectively handicapped itself due to the last hard market. During this glory time we pumped out insurance professionals and underwriters who for the most part had no talent and lacked even a basic knowledge of insurance.

This new generation of “professionals” are hurting the most, since on average they have never had to fight to save an account, they have never had to explain coverages, and they have never had to work through a complicated risk. They are a generation of sales people with no real sales experience. On the other side of the spectrum are the insurance professionals who joined our industry during one of the very common soft markets. These individuals learned from the beginning how to survive and adapt to an ever changing marketplace.

A more seasoned insurance agent knows the fluctuations of the industry. They are able to prepare for the soft market and hold onto their book of business surviving based on skills and prowess until the rare hard market makes its way back and lasts for a couple of years at best.

It also seems that this new generation has more whiners than in past. Having gone through numerous hard/soft markets I can say that the noise level of complaining during this one is much worse than ever before. I say chalk this up to inexperience.