Direct sales to consumers of personal-lines products has been a major Auto and Homeowners' insurance distribution platform for years, keeping the heat on independent agents and brokers to prove their added value if they want to retain market share. However, a day of reckoning on small-commercial business could be looming as well.
Agents have tended to take small-commercial accounts for granted, in terms of not fearing disintermediation. The conventional wisdom is that such consumers don't have time to shop for coverage on their own—and even if they did, their lack of expertise, as well as their high-maintenance service requirements, would keep them solidly entrenched in the independent-agent camp.
However, many of the small-business consumers queried earlier this year about their customer experience in a pair of focus groups run on behalf of Deloitte's Center for Financial Services were definitely open to the idea of buying insurance without an intermediary, given the right set of circumstances.
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
