What many contractors don’t understand is that a surety bond doesn’t protect the contractor. It protects the project owner from loss by the surety if the contractor fails to fulfill their obligations.
Independent agent Frances Blanks started her agency when the chief judge of the county probate court asked her for help. “I put everything together—the companies, space and everything necessary to run a business,” she says.
Sara Rutland and her husband have over 70 years of professional airman experience between them. The couple owns a flight school and even lives in a hangar house. Why not start an aviation insurance agency, too?
Independent agent Marnye Langer launched her equine-focused agency in 2010. “Right at the time we entered the market, some significant changes were happening in terms of underwriting practices and pricing,” she says.
Insuring the freight transported by America’s motor carriers can be an exceptional opportunity for independent agents—but it can also lead to errors & omissions claims.
The current trucking insurance marketplace escapes simple “soft” or “hard” market categorization—it’s much more complex.
Autonomous trucks are on the horizon, and the new technology they entail will hopefully improve safety. But that won’t happen any time soon—and certainly not soon enough to provide any relief to the current driver shortage crisis.
To succeed in the trucking insurance market, independent agent John Glinski III says “you either have to have both feet in or both feet out. You can’t really dabble in it.”
Independent agent Tom Lucas has noticed some changes in the RV market. “We’re seeing companies coming in with replacement cost and disappearing deductibles that we didn’t see before,” he says.
Independent agent Andrew Bierschied moved into the insurance industry to “have a little more control over my own destiny, career-wise and financially,” he says.