Erie Insurance Group
www.erieinsurance.com
2409 N. Main Street
East Peoria , IL 61611
Contact: Joe Vahey, CIC, CPCU, CLU, CPA, FLMI
Phone: (888) 335-3743
Joseph.Vahey@ErieInsurance.com
Percent of business in Illinois by line:
Commercial: 15% Personal: 82% Life & Annuity: 3%
Are you currently appointing new agents? Yes, we are actively recruiting throughout the state.
What type of agency is your company looking for? ERIE is seeking p rofessional, proactive all lines agencies with a strong personal lines focus and a history of growth and profitability. Additionally, we pursue scratch agencies interested in getting their start in the independent agency system.
What are your premium volume requirements? ERIE requests an agency business plan and production goals as part of the recruitment process. ERIE has no quotas, but an agency must have history of growth and profitability. ERIE ’s strong life affiliate offers a broad range of life protection and agents are expected to support that broad product portfolio.
Are you currently doing any niche-marketing program? ERIE looks to be competitive in all areas of personal, commercial and life insurance.
What is your company’s most aggressive line of business? The ERIE is aggressively writing standard and preferred auto, home and small to medium commercial lines. ERIE enjoys strong relationships with our agency partners. This is attributable to ERIE ’s broad underwriting appetite and total agency value proposition.
Do you use credit scoring? We use an insurance scoring model in underwriting and pricing.
What methods do you use to distribute your insurance products? The ERIE uses independent agents only.
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? ERIE has an in-depth selection process. We seek a long-term partnership with independent agencies. This partnership is rooted in value added service for policyholders and agents. ERIE offers competitive pricing, competitive products, and ease of doing business for personal lines, small to medium commercial lines, life and annuities. We have a nationally recognized claims service with an all lines retention ratio as one of the leading in the industry. We are committed to continually improving the value proposition to our agents and our shared policyholders and future policyholders.
If we had agents agree to sell homeowners policies with actual cash value endorsements, would you write more business in Southern Illinois ? The ERIE is actively writing homeowners throughout Illinois .
Please list your Marketing Representatives and describe the territory they cover:
David Sheets – Southern Illinois Area
David Wilson, CIC, ACS, AIAA – Central and Eastern Illinois Area
William Preston, CIC – Central and Western Illinois Area
Julie Popovich – Southwest Chicago Area
Gregory Johnson – Northwest Chicago Area
Jeffrey Porter – Northwestern Illinois Area
Do you plan on retaining your current profit sharing agreements? Yes.
Do you offer the ability for agents to integrate third-party reports (credit/MVR/claims-loss history) into their comparative rating process? If yes, with what vendors have you developed and/or signed on to provide this technology? If no, do you have plans to do so? Please list estimated timeframe of when this capability will be available for Illinois agents. The ERIE provides online access through Choicepoint for MVR and CLUE historical information for verifying prospective a policyholder’s driving history and loss experience. Choicepoint is also our vendor for insurance scoring.
Do you offer single-entry new business upload from either comparative raters and/or management systems? Is it available today? If yes, how many transactions do you process a month? If yes, what vendors? Is it in development? No, not at present.
Do you provide rates and assistance to comparative rating vendors? No, not at present.
Do you work with comparative rating vendors to improve accuracy? Not applicable.
Do you provide an agent facing website for your agent’s reference? Yes.
Do you offer the ability to quote and/or issue new business? Yes.
Which lines? The ERIE offers the agent the ability to quote auto, home, personal umbrella and life insurance lines of business through its proprietary software. Agents are able to quote a high percentage of commercial auto business online via our proprietary agent Web site. Agents are able to call in, fax or upload requests for other commercial lines quotes.
Can the transaction be bound online? The ERIE offers its agents various binding authority in all lines through any uploaded or paper application.
Can your agents service in-force policies? Yes.
Which lines? The ERIE affords its agents the ability to service all in force policies online through its proprietary software.
Describe the service transactions available: Agents are able to process endorsements, make renewal requests, access billing and payment information, review claims information, and correspond with underwriters and other ERIE employees through ERIE ’s software.
Do you publish agent manuals and policy forms on-line? Yes.
Do you have upload? Yes.
Which lines? The ERIE offers Agents the ability to upload auto, home, boat, umbrella, commercial and life insurance applications.
Do you support policy download? Yes.
Which lines? Currently, The ERIE offers agency download for auto and home lines of business.
Do you support direct bill commission statement download? No.
Which agent management systems do you work with? The ERIE currently supports Instar, AMS, Applied Systems, MI-Assistant, SIS (Semci Partner), Doris and Redshaw.
Live Systems? None
Are there any systems in development? No
Do you support real time service for inquiry? We support this on a l imited basis.
Do you have real time endorsement capabilities? This is l imited
Which lines? Auto, Home, Boat, Personal Umbrella
Do you support either Transformation Station, Transact now or other technologies? No
Is this technology available today? No
Is it in development? No
Please outline the top 3 technology initiatives your company will be implementing to benefit agency workflows and describe how these initiatives will benefit the agency.
ERIE is undertaking a comprehensive e-commerce program. One of the primary goals of the program is to enhance agents’ ease of doing business with the company, supporting their marketing, sales and agency management/integration efforts. The program encompasses:
Additional Comments:
ERIE is celebrating its 80 th Anniversary in 2005 and its seventh year in Illinois . Currently 100 agencies represent ERIE in Illinois and together, we have written over 83,400 policies for over $99 million in insurance premiums. Companywide, the average annual revenue of an agency representing ERIE is $2.3 million.
ERIE has a stellar claims-service reputation. J.D. Power and Associates continually ranks ERIE among the top three insurance companies for consumer satisfaction in its auto and home insurance studies and as the number one ranked agency-represented company. In 2004, ERIE ranked as the number one company overall in the J.D. Power and Associates Collision Repair Study. The fact that a regional company continues to outrank national insurers in these satisfaction surveys is directly related to ERIE ’s service-oriented culture.
And we’re just as proud of our state rankings. For example, in the latest survey from the Chicago Consumers’ CheckBook , ERIE received a “top rating” for quality service for auto insurance. Of the 29 insurance companies included in the survey, ERIE was one of eight to receive the highest rating for service quality.
ERIE is a strong underwriting and agency relations company. Together with its quality Agents, The ERIE is committed to continuous improvement to ensure its long-term success and unmatched superior service in Illinois .
For more information, please review the company’s website at www.erieinsurance.com .