Category: Insurance Company Organization and Regulation

  Perhaps you have also heard the terms solicitor, broker, excess or surplus lines agent, and producer used in conjunction with a person who sells insurance.  Although not every state recognizes these classifications, we’ll explain briefly how these positions differ from that of an agent. A solicitor, like an agent, sells insurance and may even…

There are four basic distribution systems used to market insurance: ■   Exclusive agency system ■      Direct writer system ■     Direct response system ■      Independent agency system Insurance Marketing and the Internet Advertising and selling insurance through the Internet is a relatively recent development in insurance marketing.  Insurance company Websites offer information about…

   Authority : Express, Implied, Apparent An agency relationship exists when one party (an agent) is authorized to act on behalf of another (a principal).  In the insurance business, the principal is the insurance company and the agent is a person authorized to act on the company’s behalf.  Principals grant certain powers, or authority, to…

   The first person most people think of when they think of insurance is the insurance agent.  The insurance agent, who represents the insurance com- pany, is the direct link between the company and its insureds. As such, the agent has many responsibilities, including: ■    selling insuranc; ■   issuing and countersigning policies;  ■   collecting premiums;…

      Four Lines of Insurance Another way of classifying insurance companies is by the type of insurance policies they write.  There are four broad categories, or lines, of insurance: ■  Property ■    Casualty ■    Life ■    Health and disability An insurance company that writes only one line of insurance is referred to as a monoline…

       Stock and Mutual Companies Now that we’ve talked about the insurance contract in general, we want to look more closely at the organizations that issue these contracts.  There are several types of insurance companies that represent different ways in which companies raise the money necessary to begin business and enroll their pros-…