Twitter and the blogosphere were ablaze this week with the buzz surrounding an Accenture study that found three-quarters of U.S. consumers prefer to buy insurance products through agents and other trusted sources rather than online.
The study of more than a thousand Americans at least 18 years old who own one or more insurance products showed that 73 percent preferred to buy auto and home insurance products from an agent, and 75 percent preferred to buy life products from an agent or trusted source, such as an employer or financial advisor. (The exception is “younger and more affluent” customers, who preferred to buy products over the Web: 39 percent of consumers aged 18 to 24 and 28 percent of buyers with incomes above $60,000 said they preferred online purchases, especially for auto and home products.)
This is a bit of welcome news for independent agents, especially the smaller Main Street guys who are struggling right along with their customers in this tough economy. Am I surprised? Not really, considering that some of the biggest players in the business world are the doing the worst right now.
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