An insurance agent, also referred to as an insurance broker, is your local representative to any number of insurance companies.\u00a0 An agent must be licensed by a state board before he or she can legally sell insurance policies.\u00a0 There are two types of insurance agents; captive and independent. Captive insurance agents only represent one insurance carrier. Independent insurance agents, on the other hand, partner with a number of different insurance companies based on their areas of expertise and coverage.<\/p>\n
Agents are considered the retail side of insurance and will solicit, sell or negotiate insurance policies on your behalf for compensation.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps the most important job of an insurance agent is to guide you, the prospective insured, with developing risk management strategies in line with your risk profile.\u00a0 A good insurance agent<\/a> will work closely with you to assess the kinds of risks you regularly encounter and educate you about the policies that are available to you for each type of risk.\u00a0 With the help of your insurance agent, you may decide to buy a regular policy and then supplement it with endorsements or additional policies where needed.<\/p>\n Once you have decided upon and purchased a policy, you are required to make regular payments, called premiums to the insurance company.\u00a0 That said, it is your agent\u2019s job to ensure that you are making your payments in a timely manner, often sending out friendly reminders; they should also alert you to any rate or policy changes.<\/p>\n And last but not least, the most important part of an agent\u2019s job happens when you make a claim. For example, following a natural disaster or a fire, you, the customer, are urged to contact your insurance agent as soon as possible to place your claim.\u00a0 Once your claim is processed, your insurance agent will likely send out a specialist called a claims adjuster to assess the damage and calculate the value of your claim.\u00a0 At this time, your insurance agent will often act as an informal arbitrator between you and the parent insurance company, giving you advice as to the best way to present your claim with the most favorable outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An insurance agent, also referred to as an insurance broker, is your local representative to any number of insurance companies.\u00a0 An agent must be licensed by a state board before he or she can legally sell insurance policies.\u00a0 There are two types of insurance agents; captive and independent. Captive insurance agents only represent one insurance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[898],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t