Posts - April 2009

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Okay, so while a few of you may have scoffed, you would probably be surprised by how many people are nodding "yes" to that question. In fact, according to insurancenewsnet.com's March 2009 magazine issue (give me a break, I've been busy) a good deal of very successful agencies and brokerages are being "passed down" in families across the country. In addition, a number of these lucky beneficiaries had already begun firms of their own. This begs the question, how do you successfully combine businesses, and make sure that the work involved doesn’t erase future profits.

Family firms, of course, aren’t the only kinds that get combined. When firm-combination-driving business transactions, often mergers and acquisitions, cause agencies and brokerages to unite, compliance staff is forced to pick up the pieces.

If you’re in the fortunate position to be concerning yourself of the details of making a merger smooth sailing, take a moment and review the Quick Load functionality within Producer Manager. It allows your licensing and compliance staff to load producer records in bulk, up to 1,000 at a time, from spreadsheets and the like, saving you a ton of time and manual clickity-clack on the keyboard. Increased efficiency is a beautiful thing, regardless of the climate.

For those firms who haven’t inherited anything lately, send me a line at firmalchemyfeedback@sircon.com, and I’ll send you information on how to grow in this economy and beyond!

For the final day of our Seven in Seven, we thought you might like to hear a little about our plans for the future. And, since these particular plans sprouted directly from your suggestions, we also wanted to extend you a virtual pat on the back, while we were at it.

According to many of you, and industry sources like Insurance Journal and Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, communicating with your carriers more effectively would make your jobs considerably easier, put an end to a great deal of guess work, and waste far less time. What you may be surprised to learn, is that your carriers feel the same way. This being the case, we felt like bridging the communication gap between such integral insurance industry stakeholders was a top priority.

As such, over the past months here at Sircon, we’ve been taking your communication preferences to heart. In fact, our product teams have been hard at work building tools which will bridge the gap between your carriers, their necessary appointments, the states who grant them, your firm, and your selling agents. The end result will be streamlined communication, less time wasted on the phone trying to figure out if appointment requests initiated on behalf of your selling agents were in fact granted, and far fewer grouchy emails. Just at-a-glance, automatic authorization responses, no prodding necessary – you know, the way business should be.

If you have other great product ideas just waiting to be heard, drop us a line at firmalchemyfeedback@sircon.com. And by the way, thanks again for this one – it’s great! Be sure to check back often to learn more about when you’ll be able to put streamlined communication with carriers, the feature to use in your firm!

As far as agency broker blogs go, here at Sircon, we like to consider ourselves a fairly responsive bunch. As such, when firms told us that they wanted to learn more about tracking their producers more effectively, we listened.

Gone are the days of spreadsheets and daily planners bursting at the seams – what we heard these firms tell us they need is a tool that takes into account each one of their producers and allows them to pull customizable reports, based on their firm’s total agent data input. In English, please? Let me try again. Basically, firms want to be able to tell, at a glance, which of their 287 producers can sell Life and Health in Virginia, and which of those have an active appointment with The Hartford, for instance.

Robust reporting functionality is one big reason top firms are upgrading their core systems with Producer Manager. Not only will Sircon allow you to select which data is important and provide you with digestible outputs in formats you can use; perhaps even more importantly, it allows you to pull back confirmed data from trusted sources, guaranteeing that the data your firm relies on is the same as the state regulatory bodies to which you apply.

For you, this means less typing, less chances for errors, and less time spent waiting. Bottom line, it gets that one agent out of your pool of 287 on her way to sell the Hartford policy to that couple in Virginia even faster. Pretty neat, eh? We thought so too! And pat yourself on the back, that idea was all yours! Now taking other fantastic suggestions, ideas, what if’s, and notions at firmalchemyfeedback@sircon.com.

One of the toughest jobs for licensed individuals is keeping up with continuing education requirements and course completions. Folks in the insurance industry, however, have a tougher time than most due to differing requirements across lines of authority and differing requirements in various states. And, since Licensing Specialists have to track CE on behalf of multiple licensees, their job is the toughest of all.

Easily tracking CE was number 4 on the list of things you told us could use improvement in your firms, and we have just the tool to make your jobs easier. Through Sircon’s direct connections with state databases, both firms and individual licensees can do just that, by instantly pulling back the following information:

• Pre-licensing Education Transcripts
• Available Course Offerings
• Approved Courses
• Approved Providers
• Continuing Education Transcripts

While some service availability may vary slightly by state, you get the picture. More often than not, for selling agents, taking time from their job to complete CE is a pain. There’s no reason why understanding CE requirements and tracking completions should be, as well. That’s how we feel. How about you? Drop us a line at firmalchemyfeedback@sircon.com.

Number 3 on your list of importance was automating license expiration notifications.

Let’s face it, if you’re responsible for making sure more than one insurance license remains current, you’re likely in over your head. While individuals licensed to sell insurance in more than one state have a terrible time managing their own upcoming renewal dates; imagine the headache licensing specialists, responsible for an entire firm's renewals must feel. Couple that juggling act with the fact that most selling agents are licensed in at least three surrounding states, and the knowledge that a good deal of agency principals and administrative staff also carry licenses, and there's major issue. And if we want to be completely honest about it, Outlook isn’t working because it simply was not built to automate license renewals.

That's why one of the most requested capabilities from firms of all sizes is automatic renewal expiration notifications. And, as luck would have it, Sircon’s Producer Manager gives you just that. With customizable reminders to whomever you want notified, Producer Manager gives your licensing specialist, compliance team, and licensees themselves the foresight to renew licenses before they expire, ensuring that compliance is always maintained and selling agents never miss a beat.

Automated license renewal notifications, just another responsive feature from the Agency/Broker team at Sircon. If you have other ideas that would put time back on your side, feel free to drop us a line at firmalchemyfeedback@sircon.com.

A quick recap of where we're at: At the AMS Users' Group National Meeting in March, we surveyed a number of firm personnel and found that they consistently ranked a handful of topics as the most important for them to learn more about, in order to increase efficiencies in their firms. Today, we'll discuss the number two ranked "most important" topic – How to easily verify the status of your licensees’ licenses and appointments.

In simpler terms, we heard firm associates of all titles say that they were interested in learning more about how to leverage existing records on their agents’ license and appointment status, from confirmed data sources. In turn, this confirmed data would save time by omitting frantic research and delays associated with submitting error-filled applications to the states and to carrier partners. Perhaps most importantly, easy verification of agent license and appointment status would help licensing staff get selling agents selling faster.

Well, Sircon subscribers, you’re in luck! With a click of the mouse, licensing specialists using Sircon's Compliance Express™ or Producer Manager™ can instantly update an agent’s license, appointment, and demographic information, as well as be sure that their in-house licensee records match state regulatory records, found on trusted sources like the National Producer Database (PDB). In essence, with no manual data entry, Sircon solutions allow you to make sure that your records match those of the states, and ensure your application data is right the first time.

To check out more information on how Sircon can make your job easier and automate needless manual tasks like verifying your producers' license and appointment status, click here.

"Not possible," you say? Nonsense! It IS possible to make quick work of producer licensing and renewal processing. No, really, it is. Here’s how:

First, throw out recycle the paper. You don’t need it anymore. Almost every state now accepts electronic license and renewal applications, and with Sircon, you have access to a an affordable, web-based solution for anywhere, anytime access to license and renewal processing for any state or US Territory. For those states still requiring licensed individuals to behave as though it’s 1980, Sircon handles multiple-requirement form juggling for you. With one easy-to-use online interface, all you have to do is enter data once, we pre-populate the rest, you hit "print", and you’re on your way.

"Navigating to over 50 state and US territory websites to complete my firm’s applications online is just as much of a pain," you say? Not anymore – we’ve solved that too! With Sircon’s intuitive online license and renewal interface, Compliance Express™, you only have to enter licensee information ONCE, no matter how many state departments of insurance you’re applying to.

"It sounds too good to be true, it must be expensive," you worry? Wrong again. Using Sircon as a subscriber is very likely less expensive than your current process, even if the states to which you apply use Sircon themselves. Less cost and more functionality – as one recent Sircon convert said, "Licensing and renewals are something that I HAVE to do. I’m already doing them, and paying more money for more of a hassle than the process through Sircon. Why WOULDN’T I subscribe? It’s just a no-brainer!" Our thoughts exactly.

No, I didn’t mistype. Not to be confused with a Seven AND Seven (sorry Seagrams), a Seven in Seven is a series of seven blogs in seven days. This time, we’ll focus on what you told us was most important to you, in Washington D.C., at the AMS Users’ Group National Conference (AMS UG).

While we were at AMS UG, one of our main goals of the weekend was to get your valuable feedback. And, after conducting a short survey, we found that you’re most interested in learning more about the following topics:

1. Getting your agents licensed quickly and processing renewals more efficiently
2. Easily verifying the status of producer licenses and appointments
3. Automating license expiration notifications
4. Easily checking your agents’ CE status
5. Tracking your producers more effectively
6. Communicating with carriers more efficiently

In the spirit of giving you more of what you’re asking for, the next few blogs will focus directly on these topics; so tune in and find out more. As always, if you have additional questions or would like additional information on another subject altogether, email us at: firmalchemyfeedback@sircon.com.