The insurance industry and the market that it serves are dynamic in nature. Agents have to be responsive to changes and new hurdles that come their way as they pursue their careers. If you’re buying an insurance agency, you’d have to also understand what problems your future agents will encounter and how these issues affect their performance.
Three Common Obstacles Faced by Insurance Agents
Changes in Legislation
Legislation can single-handedly disrupt the insurance industry and its workforce. For instance, former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act of 2010 brought significant growth in revenues to the insurance industry. However, it is not without any adverse effects, and it remains controversial to this day.
The law made insurance available to a larger part of the American population by making coverage mandatory and providing subsidies for individuals that cannot afford a policy. People with pre-existing conditions can now qualify for coverage as well.
To support the subsidies, the government raised taxes or introduced new ones. Policies for people suffering from pre-existing conditions also carried with them higher premiums. There was even a fine for Americans who failed to enroll in insurance, but the government removed the penalty in 2019.
Customers’ Investing Attitudes
Insurance agents and companies are well-equipped to understand and mitigate risks. However, their customers don’t possess the same ability. Clients might become conservative in their financial decisions in response to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, or they could do the opposite. For example, insurance sales have increased significantly in the first year of the pandemic.
Empathy is crucial in selling insurance and in nurturing existing clients. This indispensable trait allows you to understand a customer’s pain point from their perspective. Being empathetic helps you craft an approach that addresses a potential client’s apprehension towards insurance and presents it as the solution.
Leveraging the Digital Realm
Many insurance agents now recognize the importance of establishing a digital presence. Still, not all of them have leveraged the advantages of the realm. Going digital can be very complicated, with so many solutions to consider. Nevertheless, migrating some of their sales and customer service processes to digital can have many benefits.
Below are just a few of the benefits of shifting insurance workflows to digital:
- Increased productivity and efficiency
- The ability to personalize approaches to individual clients
- Reliable and accurate data
- Resilience to future disruptions
We Can You Help in Buying an Insurance Agency
Acquiring an insurance company requires due diligence and accurate valuation. We can help you with these two tasks. Give us a call now, and we’ll guide you through the acquisition process.