Percent of business in Illinois by line:
Commercial: 26% Personal: 73% Life: 1%

Are you currently appointing new agents? Yes, -- on a selective basis. Grange offers appointments for personal lines only, commercial lines only, or both.

What type of agency is your company looking for? Grange is looking for established professional agencies that have shown a proven track record of profitable growth with their carriers. In addition, our preference is to find agencies that utilize automation as a means to effectively communicate with the company and to serve the needs of their customers. We are seeking agencies, which have an experienced staff, possessing excellent up-front underwriting skills. Agencies must have at least 3 or more years of experience to be considered for appointment.

What are your premium volume requirements? Grange's profit sharing program starts at $50,000 of written premium in the first year, $100,000 in the second year, and $250,000 in the third year and thereafter. From a life insurance standpoint, we would like to have a fair share of the agency's life production.

Are you currently doing any niche-marketing program? No.

What is your company's most aggressive line of business? Personal Lines and small to medium sized commercial accounts

Do you use credit scoring? Yes. Credit scoring is utilized from a personal lines standpoint on new business only.

Do you currently download/upload with your agencies? Yes. We support upload through Applied Systems, AMS, and SIS (Strategic Insurance Software). Grange also supports industry standard download with most agency management systems to provide daily updates for personal lines, BOP, and commercial auto policy information. For those agencies not possessing an agency management system, our company has developed a web-based product known as GAINWeb. This system allows the agency to quote, issue, and amend policies online.

What methods do you use to distribute your insurance products? Grange products are distributed 100% 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? Grange has made a continuing commitment to EODB (Ease of Doing Business) for our agents. Our focus is to strive to make things as easy as possible for our agents by making procedures simpler and providing courteous and helpful service. Grange offers a broad portfolio of products (personal, commercial, farm, life, non-standard auto, and the Grange Bank), which allows our agents to accommodate most day to day situations. Affirming that we are 100% committed to the independent agency system shows that we are committed to doing business with only one means of distribution-the independent agent.

If we had agents agree to sell homeowners policies with actual cash value endorsements, would you write more business in southern Illinois? All of Grange's homeowner programs require 100% insurance to value, and we have no plans to change this requirement. Without offering the ACV option, it would be difficult to comment on how effective this would be. Grange writes a great deal of business in Southern Illinois under the present insurance to value requirements.

What are the major ways in which you are interfacing electronically with your agents today? GAINWeb, an easy-to use web based system for doing business with Grange, was released in October, 2002, to all Grange agents. Through GAINWeb, agents have the ability to submit new business and changes for Grange Personal Auto, Non-standard Auto, BOP, Recreational Vehicles, and Motorcycles. In addition, the agency can quote, print applications and proof-of-insurance cards, and order underwriting reports (MVR, CBR, and CLUE). We hope to arrive with GAINWeb for homeowners in 2003. As was mentioned earlier, personal lines business may be uploaded through three different agency management systems-Applied systems, AMS, and SIS. This is another popular means to interface with the company. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive about our interface capabilities, and we are pleased to see the number of agents utilizing our interface tools.