Markets

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.

Independent agent Steve Shoultz started Priority Risk Management from scratch 13 years ago—and he tries to cross-sell commercial auto whenever he can. “It’s much more difficult to find a qualified driver now because the economy is good and there’s high em

Independent agent Matt Evans didn’t set out to become an expert in flood insurance. But when his hometown in Iowa flooded, he didn’t have a choice.