Independent agents gave The Travelers top honors as the best overall commercial carrier in a 2010 biennial study of agents' opinions of U.S. commercial carriers. The Flaspohler Research Group conducted the survey of 250 agents in partnership with National Underwriter.
Top vote-getters for “best overall” carriers also included (in alphabetical order) Chubb, Cincinnati, CNA, Fireman's Fund, The Hartford, Liberty Mutual, Philadelphia, Progressive, Safeco and Zurich. Travelers, Progressive, The Hartford and Zurich also were chosen as having the most useful websites; however, one-fifth of the respondents said no carrier website was useful to them.
Significantly, more than half of the producers said they would make changes to their current carriers in the next 12 months, including adding or deleting carriers. Nearly half said they were “somewhat satisfied” with their commercial carriers and 42.6 percent described themselves as “very satisfied” with their carriers.
Agents were asked to list reasons, if any, they would ask their client to pay a higher premium to use a specific carrier. The majority (61.7 percent) said they would do so for superior service.
On a scale of 1 to 9, participants rated carriers with which they were familiar in 10 areas: underwriting process, responsive service, claims handling, partnership, products and coverages, financial security, technology support, brand-reputation, risk management and loss control program and compensation program.
Underwriting and responsive service were the most important factors when choosing a commercial carrier, with a carrier's compensation program rating the least important. Insurers receiving the highest rankings based on the 10 evaluation criteria (in alphabetical order) were: Chubb, Cincinnati, CNA, Great American, The Hartford, Liberty Mutual, Progressive, Safeco, Travelers and Zurich.
When rated solely by individual criteria, agents chose Texas Mutual as the top-rated carrier for underwriting, service and claims handling.
Only 8 percent of respondents said their relationships with their carriers were declining. Independents agents in nearly equal portions said their relationships with carriers were either improving or not really changing.
Respondents defined their primary responsibility for choosing commercial carriers in 14 business lines, with the top five general liability (93.8 percent), commercial auto (88.1 percent), property (87.1 percent), workers comp (80.5 percent), umbrella liability (73.3%) and E&O (66.2 percent).
Agents chose the print version of National Underwriter as the publication that provides them the best information to do their jobs, followed by American Agent & Broker, Rough Notes and the National Underwriter online version.
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