Percent of business in Illinois by line
Commercial: 100%

Are you currently appointing new agents? Yes.

What type of agency is your company looking for? We are looking for agencies that need a mono-line workers compensation insurance company, have a controlled workers compensation book of business in the industries we write and truly value the services we provide to our clients and agents. Midwest is also looking for active principals that are writing business.

What are your premium volume requirements? We need a minimum of $250,000 within twelve months of contracting with the agency to make the agency-company relationship work.

Are you currently doing any niche-marketing program? Yes; manufacturing, retail and other four wall operations.

What is your company's most aggressive line of business? Workers compensation is our only line of business.

Do you use credit scoring? No.

Do you currently download/upload with your agencies? No.

What methods do you use to distribute your insurance products? 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 workers compensation specialist company and pay a higher commission than most companies. We take a different approach to underwriting than an all lines company does, have excellent loss control services and a claims department that knows how to w3ork with the doctors and hospitals, get the insured employees back to work and take a hard stand when we identify fraud. We keep the agents informed on claims from the time they are first reported until they are closed. We are very proactive.

If we had agents agree to sell homeowners policies with actual cash value endorsements, would you write more business in southern Illinois? N/A

What are the major ways in which you are interfacing electronically with your agents today? Are you pleased with the results? We like all correspondence to be sent by email or fax. We are paperless in the underwriting department and hope to be paperless in the claims department by the end of 2003. We are testing emailing the policies to a limited number of agents now. Although we are pleased with the results, we have learned that progress with technology moves slower than we would like.

Are you planning enhancement in these interfaces in the future? We are in the process of developing our own policy issuance and management system.

ACT Statement: We agree with most of the Council's statement. We are a highly personalized company and we look towards technology as a way to become more efficient in the "processing" of business. We do not look at technology to replace that personal, hands-on service.

Additional Comments: Midwest Insurance Company was started in April of 1998, and expects to receive a rating in June of 2003. This is the only company that has been approved in Illinois in the last 10 years that is not an "offshoot" of another company. Midwest is licensed in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin and currently has 12 million in premium volume and 32 agents in Illinois. The company is looking to make 3 appointments in Illinois. In 2002, Midwest took a 22% rate increase in Illinois. In 2003, they expect a 10-15% increase. In 2003, the company is projecting premium volume to increase to 17 or 18 million.