Percent of business in Illinois by line:
Personal: 100%
Are you currently appointing new agents? Yes. Encompass wants to grow in all areas of the state. All inquires should go through the Chicago office.
What type of agency is your company looking for? The perfect agency would have a personal lines department that is managed to proactively sell personal lines. We have found the most success with agencies that the personal lines department is a looked upon as a revenue generator for the agency. Encompass will do business with agencies that have satellites, but must approve each satellite office.
What are your premium volume requirements? We look for agencies that have 1 million of personal lines premium. We have found these agencies have the capacity to grow with us and meet us at the technology level we like to see in an agency. Write 100,000 every year. 300,000 in 3 years, 1 year profit sharing contract, with a minimum of $300,000 in premium, 300,000 stop loss and 300,000 for cat losses. We also offer Charter and Charter Select programs for large profitable agents. A Charter Select agency of $1.0 million or higher has profit sharing guaranteed for the upcoming year.
Are you currently doing any niche-marketing program? With are new InterLink ( Internet) system.We will price every risk for the appropriate rate. Our niche market would be Package business. Package is where you will find our most competitive rates. We offer three levels of coverage, Special, Deluxe and Elite. Our Elite coverage will match up with any of our major competitors top products. The home values that we target are minimum of $100,000 and will write on the high end up to $2.5 million. We like the low affluent business the most. We also offer an excess liability policy attached to our package up to $5.0 million with UW approval.
What is your company's most aggressive line of business? Package, One policy, One dec, One bill
Do you use credit scoring? Yes. On new and renewal.
Do you currently download/upload with your agencies? All of our processing is done online by the agency. You have the capability of issuing the policy in your office while the client sits across form your desk. Clue, MVR, Boechke, and rating is all done as part of the rating process. Download is available, We also encourage the use of our Agency Desktop where you have access to rate manuals, policy document view, billing, claims inquiry and many other tools to manage your Encompass book of business.
What methods do you use to distribute your insurance products? Encompass only sells through independent agents.
What do you think makes your company different, or stand out from all the rest in Illinois? Why would an agent want to contract with your company? We are a very advanced technology company. We will match our rating system and Agency desktop functions up against anyone. Ease of doing business with a package policy that is competitive for the right risk.
If we had agents agree to sell homeowners policies with actual cash value endorsements, would you write more business in southern Illinois? Downstate, Encompass would consider the market conditions, but would stay with the core requirement of writing package business.
What are the major ways in which you are interfacing electronically with your agents today? Are you pleased with the results? New agents can be fully trained in three hours without any paper because everything is done online. Agents can see everything they need referencing any policyholder and can communicate with the customer via the Encompass Agent Desktop. Encompass has a system called Interlink. This is a once and done online system. Producers can quote and issue this product within 10-15 minutes.
Additional Comments: Encompass had 58 million in premium volume in Illinois in 2002. They took a 9.9% rate increase on auto and a 27.5% increase on home in 2002. Both new and renewal rates will be looked at in 2003. A $1,000 wind and hail deductible is expected to be implemented some time in 2003. Loss ratios on renewal trended very well and new business trended even better. Encompass appointed 22 agents in Illinois in 2002. They now have a total of 135 agents in Illinois, and 120 of those are north of I-80. Illinois will be the 2nd largest online producer state for the company (the number one state has twice the number of agents).