Percent of business in Illinois by line:
Commercial: 100%

Are you currently appointing new agents? Yes, actively.

What type of agency is your company looking for? Well established, independent agencies with at least $1 million in written commercial premium volume. Agents must demonstrate an overall profitable relationship with their current carriers and must be willing to transact business via the company's internet site.

What are your premium volume requirements? (In profit sharing? In life?) Ultimately, we strive for $150,000 written premium within the first 24 months of contracting with our business unit. However, the requirement may be higher depending on the agent's available premium. To qualify for our Agency Incentive Award (Profit Sharing), the minimum premium requirement is currently $200,000. Although Zurich North America Small Business does not have a life premium requirement, we do offer access through our website to the term life products available through Zurich Life.

Are you currently doing any niche-marketing program? We offer over 450 classes in our program. In addition, we have identified 115 "World Class Classes" as target classes we wish to pursue and write aggressively.

What is your company's most aggressive line of business? Builders Risk!!! We also offer a portfolio product including Property, GL, IM, Auto and Umbrella. We also will consider Worker's Compensation on non-contracting exposures.

Do you use credit scoring? No.

Do you currently download/upload with your agencies? Yes. We offer download with most widely used agency management systems. Our internet platform, called eZSB, allows a user to quote, issue and endorse policies online in minutes.

What methods do you use to distribute your insurance products? Zurich North America Small Business is committed to the independent agency system. We are very active from a local to a national level with the various insurance trade associations such as PIA and the Big I.

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 have an internet web-based underwriting program that allows agents to quote, issue and endorse policies from their office. We also include our underwriting manual, policy forms and several other helpful tools such as mass marketing and advertising support. We also have a local field staff to work with our agents to help them grow their business.

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? Due to agency training and website design, our agents have access to our website product that ultimately saves time and processing issues for the agent. Since our program is internet based, we have no proprietary system that we need to install in the agent's office. Our program can be accessed anywhere Internet Explorer is available.

Additional Comments: The territory for the Chicago Field Office includes the following counties: Boone, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will. The Southern Illinois Field Office, with an office in St. Louis, handles the balance of the state. The Zurich North America Small Business Home Office is located in Baltimore, Maryland