Percent of business in Illinois by line:
Commercial: 44% Personal: 40% Farm: 17%

Are you currently appointing new agents? No.

What are your premium volume requirements? Profit sharing minimum is $100,000.

Are you currently doing any niche-marketing program? Auto service risks, metalworking, contractors, farm.

What is your company's most aggressive line of business? We are aggressive in all of our commercial lines.

Do you use credit scoring? Yes. New and renewal.

Do you currently download/upload with your agencies? Yes to both.

What methods do you use to distribute your insurance products? Independent Agents exclusively.

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? Hastings is a financially solid, stable company who is A+ rated. We write a wide variety of farm, personal and commercial business. We were also selecting for 2002 as a Wards 50 Benchmark Group.

If we had agents agree to sell homeowners policies with actual cash value endorsements, would you write more business in southern Illinois? Our most adverse results are generated by homeowners. We would not consider ACV endorsements as an answer to the problem.

What are the major ways in which you are interfacing electronically with your agents today? The "Agents Only" portion of our website contains manuals, forms, billing, payment methods, and practically all information necessary to do business. We also download to most agency systems and can upload to some. Our commercial products can all be rated in the agency.