Archives for agency fee

George Washington From Dollar BillInsurance agents provide valuable services for their clients.It is important that they stay financially healthy to be able to continue to provide those services.

On many transactions the commission paid by the carrier provides adequate resources for the agency. On others, though, a reasonable Agency Fee is both necessary and appropriate, as the Texas Insurance Code has made clear since 2005:

§ 4005.003. FEES. (a) A general property and casualty agent may charge a client a fee to reimburse the agent for costs the agent incurred in obtaining a motor vehicle record or photograph of property described under Section 4005.002. The fee may not exceed the actual costs to the agent.

(b) For services provided to a client, a general property and casualty agent may charge a reasonable fee, including a fee for: (1) special delivery or postal charges; (2) printing or reproduction costs; (3) electronic mail costs; (4) telephone transmission costs; and (5) similar costs that the agent incurs on behalf of the client.

(c) A general property and casualty agent may charge a client a fee under this section only if, before the agent incurs an expense for the client, the agent: (1) notifies the client of the agent’s fee; and (2) obtains the client’s written consent for each fee to be charged.

At iMGA we’re constantly looking for ways to make life easier for agents. One of the ways we do that is by fully supporting Agency Fee collection and compliance in our Dwelling, Homeowners, MobileHome, Renters and Vacant programs.

If you enter the amount of an Agency Fee when submitting a policy, we’ll:

  • Disclose the fee on the application and on the declarations page,
  • Include the fee in the calculated down payment amount,
  • Calculate, collect and remit the surplus lines tax and stamping fee on the agency fee, and
  • Collect the Agency Fee and include it in your next monthly commission payment.

Any future renewals will also include the agency fee, including its repeated disclosure on the declarations page.

Simply have the insured sign the iMGA application with disclosure wording (or your own fee disclosure form) for your records and you’ll be in full compliance.

Agent with clipboardAgent involvement is important throughout the entire customer experience – and agents add real value to the process.

By their actions, many of our competitors are proving that they do not feel agents add value at renewal. Some of those competitors are now slashing renewal commissions by as much as 33%. Others are slashing both new and renewal commissions significantly.

Because we work hard to keep everything as simple as possible – and value agent involvement – iMGA pays the same commission rate for both new and renewal business. We really like renewals.

It is also why we made it so that the agency fee would be collected on all renewals and not just on new business when we implemented agency fee options in our Rental product.

We appreciate our agents and work to show that appreciation in many ways every day. We know we’re better off because you work with us. We want your agency to be better off because we’ve worked with you.

We understand how critical it is that our agents be properly compensated for the effort it takes to service a policy. We also understand how important it is that everything in the policy issuance and management process be as easy as possible.

Effective immediately, iMGA agents may add an Agency Fee to a Renters policy.

If an Agency Fee is added, it will be:

  1. included in the calculation of the minimum down payment,
  2. disclosed clearly on the policy declarations page,
  3. remitted to the agent on the first commission statement after payment is received, and
  4. automatically included on each renewal of the policy.

Here’s how it will look on the declarations page:Agency Fee Declarations Page Display

You have a wide range of choices as to the Agency Fee you’d like to charge (including the ability to NOT charge a fee), and that choice can change by policy.

We hope you enjoy the added flexibility this provides. If the response to this is positive we will evaluate expanding it to other products as well. Please let us know what you think.

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