iMGA's Texas Personal Property Insurance Blog

photo credit: Ataraxis

The truth, of course, is that we could ALL use more time.

Well, iMGA can’t magically add more hours to the clock, but we can give your customers a little more time to make their down and renewal payments.

So, effective immediately, your iMGA renewal customers will have a few extra days in case they miss the renewal down payment. In addition, your new business customers won’t have to provide payment instantly for down payment. They’ll have a few days to pay their down payment online in case you aren’t able to collect it up front for any reason. Because we know the last thing you have time for is rewrites and reinstatements.

We’re constantly working to make things better, because at iMGA we’re focused on becoming the best MobileHome, TDP1/TDP3, HOA/HOA Plus and Vacant Dwelling market available. So, please, quote one with us now.

As always, we look forward to hearing your ideas of how we can improve even more. Please share them here.

We’re so honored to be doing business with you!

iMGA has been handling the servicing of the former Quirk & Company standard personal lines products (MobileHome, TDP1, TDP3, HOA, HOA+ and Vacant Dwelling) since February 1.

We’ve had the pleasure of speaking to many of the great agents that worked with Quirk & Company over the years, and visiting many, but we haven’t made it out to everyone yet (and didn’t get to see everyone in those agencies we have been able to visit), so we’d like to take this opportunity to address some of the questions that have come up in the meantime.

Who is iMGA?

We are a team of Texas-born and/or Texas-raised long-time insurance veterans. We are a new MGA, started last year, but our team has decades of experience and relationships in the industry and in Texas. You can read more about our people here if you’d like.

Our objective is to be the specialty MGA of choice in our chosen programs for retail producers because we are the easiest to interact with; while providing the best products and customer service in the marketplace, delivered by people who are having fun doing their jobs. While we have a bunch of insurance experience, we’re not a stuffy insurance company.  Heck, that is why we started iMGA, to escape that bureaucracy.  We’re real people having fun providing great products through fantastic agents.

What is iMGA’s relationship with Quirk?

Our relationship with the Quirk Group is a long and rich one that literally goes back generations. Among other things Bob Quirk is an officer of iMGA and board member of its parent. iMGA purchased the right to service the Texas Personal Property insurance products that were formerly handled by Quirk & Company, and those products are still being underwritten by San Antonio Indemnity Company, a member of Quirk Group, rated B++ by A.M. Best & Co.

What kind of a market will iMGA be for our agency?

Long term we intend to offer a few very targeted programs. In the near term, though, we are completely focused on Texas Personal Property. That means our relationship with you on the MobileHome, TDP1, TDP3, HOA, HOA+ and Vacant Dwelling products is the most important thing to us. This is why we have worked to make our system as easy as possible and are incorporating your suggestions for improvement as fast as we possibly can. One huge improvement – the reduction of the minimum down payment to 15% plus the policy fee – was implemented earlier this week as a direct result of agent suggestions. Please add more suggestions as you think of them!

So, “Howdy”! We’re very pleased to meet you, and can’t wait to get to know you better, If your agency hasn’t already contracted formally with us, please have the appropriate person complete the new agent signup form so we can, among other things, make sure your commission payments are deposited correctly.

Please don’t hesitate to call or email if you have any questions at all!

Mardi Gras is a time for celebration and revelry, and at iMGA we’re doing much more than just joining in a parade.

We’re celebrating Fat Tuesday by giving everyone a “skinnier” down payment!

The minimum down payment on our TDP1/TDP3, HOA/HOA+ and MobileHome policies has been reduced to 15% + policy fee from 25% + policy fee!

So log in and quote our new lower-down offerings. We think you’ll like what you see. If you haven’t logged in to the iMGA web site before, enter your email address in the username field on the “forgot password” page and we’ll email you a temporary password so you can get started right away.

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, we’d love for you to share them with us. This lower down payment was an idea submitted by an agent. Who knows – yours may be the next great idea we run with!

We’re happy to provide insurance for a very wide range of homes. Not this one, though.

This display at the side of the road definitely caught my eye.

My initial reaction was, “Why in the world would a skydiving company show a picture of a wrecked plane? Why would they remind people of the danger that exists even before you jump out of the plane?”

Looking more closely at what they said, it becomes very obvious why they did it.

Clearly they’ve heard too many times the old saying, “Why would anyone be crazy enough to jump out of a perfectly good airplane?”

In fact, they probably realize that this joke was costing them a significant amount of business. More importantly this joke – like most good humor – included an element of truth and was revealing a more basic, more serious limiting factor to their business: fear.

To them this was not just a joke and it most certainly was not funny. It was a meaningful limiting factor on their business’ potential. So they attacked it head-on. They didn’t go halfway. They made a statement that is impossible to miss – one that’s worth remarking about.

What about you?
What is keeping your prospects from using your service?
What does “everyone” “know” in your market?
Are you willing to attack it head-on? If not, it may forever be a limiting factor.

If you are willing to tackle it, though, you may not only make it over the hurdle – you may become remarkable in the bargain.

It’s worth thinking about.

Rob and I are visiting agents all around the state today. My travels took me by Carl’s Corner, TX, home of Willie’s Place, which is basically a themed truck stop, and from the outside looks pretty much like any one of the dozens of other truck stops on the state’s highways.

Then, though – IF you go inside – you’re surprised first by a large collection of great memorabilia spanning Willie Nelson’s long and illustrious (if checkered) career:

And surprised yet again by a full-sized concert venue that, according to flyers posted nearby, features significant and well-regarded musical acts with some frequency.

The most interesting and engaging parts of this business weren’t promoted anywhere that I could see. The signs leading to their location looked exactly like other truck stop signs except for the photo of Willie.

What hidden gems are you keeping all too secret in your business? What should you be highlighting that you’re not? You may be missing out both on a lot of business and a chance to let your true self show through if you don’t take the time to think about that and share it with the public.

Effective today we have assumed responsibility for servicing the TDP1/TDP3/HOA and Mobile Home products underwritten by San Antonio Indemnity Company.

We are very excited about the opportunity to build a successful long-term partnership with the great Texas agents that have produced this business!

Are you a new agency with iMGA or a new CSR who has just joined an agency that represents iMGA? This handy guide will show you everything you need to know to get started:

First, go to the iMGA Web Site and click on the Log In button on the top right of the screen:

Second, enter your email address in the username field and your password in the password field and click “Submit”. (If this is your first time to the site, click on the “Register” link. If you have forgotten your password, click on the “Forgot Password” link.)

Next you’ll see the agent welcome screen. This screen includes news, helpful links, automatically updated information from our blog, and links to policy servicing functions, including quoting a new policy. That button is the second one down on the left of the screen and is labeled “Online Quoting”.

Click on that, select the “StartAllQuotesHere” option from the dropdown, click on the small calendar icon to pick the effective date, enter the customer’s name in the Account field if you wish, and click on “Submit”.

The rest should be very self-explanatory. Happy Quoting and let us know if you have any questions!

Massachusetts was a key part of the American Revolution from the Boston Tea Party to the “shot heard round the world” in the battle at Concord.

It is incredibly fitting, then, that it is Massachusetts that gives the grass roots uprising generally known over the last year under the Tea Party name its biggest victory by far. Scott Brown campaigned on conservative principles and raised his funds not from large donors but from small online donations of under $80 each.

We hope this election is a clear signal to our elected officials that “back room deals… to buy… votes” are no way to run the country.

To paraphrase our first lady, for the first time in our adult life we’re really proud of Massachusetts.

In this case, though, what makes us proud is that the people of Massachusetts once again stood up for freedom and liberty, and against a government that had been refusing to listen.

Our office is closed today in remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr. As with all human beings he was imperfect. He made a significant impact, though, by standing up for what was right. To do that he had to fight a government that was not listening.

Unfortunately, as our founding fathers realized, that’s a fight we’ll have to fight indefinitely. Fortunately we live in a country where the people can stand up and make a difference. He certainly did.