EF summer 08.indd - National Association of Professional Allstate ...

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letters to NAPAA I appreciate you printing the Letter to Tom Wilson. I too find myself in a similar situation. An agent left the company late last year and his policies were placed in my office and his calls were forwarded to me. I was asked if I would like the have the policies here and I accepted given the fact that we would end up servicing them anyway. My staff has high integrity and underwrites and conducts business in the proper manner. Since receiving these accounts, we have spent a great deal of time answering customer questions about why they weren’t told their agents was leaving, why he left, etc., etc., etc. Many have left for that reason. We continue to service them, but we’re not allowed to solicit them as customers to our agency – only if they ask can we have them call and request us as their servicing agent. We are unable to capture. We have had additional stress and service problems with this book of business. We found out that many of the processes that were done by the previous agent were unethical. Fake prior insurance policy numbers and discounts the customer was not eligible for. We don’t go looking for these problems, but they arise when angry customers call. We research the policy and find these situations. When policies like these were written the customer benefited by getting a discount and the agent got the commission, but the company lost out. Now we have to tell customers they no longer qualify, which makes them angry. But my office is the biggest loser in all of this. My staff spends countless hours servicing this angry mob and has no chance to capture this business. It upsets me that we have to spend so much time and effort straightening out the messes created by the former agent – especially when I am trying so desperately to grow my own book. Now the old agent is soliciting his customers and they call in to cancel their Allstate policies. We are doing our best to retain them and we have built a good rapport with some of them. I was told that these policies would be assigned to new agents as they were hired and that I could not retain any. They will be jerked away from me and seeded to a new, inexperienced agent. I think Allstate’s policies and procedures in this area are not at all customer friendly or agent friendly. How can the company expect agents to do all this work and get nothing in return Other agents in my market are contacting these customers and replacing their old homeowner policies with new ones. They’re getting credit too because they change the insured’s name. Very unethical! We will never do that in my agency. Had I known then what I know now, I would have never agreed to have these policies assigned to my agency. There are too many headaches and no rewards. I would like to warn other agents who could be asked to do this to refuse the offer. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I would tell them to let Allstate figure it out and take care of them. Thank you again for publishing the letter and for letting me let off some steam, even though I don’t expect anything to change. O CANADA The following letters are from or about Canada. I am one of the agents who left Allstate through retirement and am now set up as broker with another Allstate agent. As we all know, up until last year this was a great company to work for. However, knowing what I know now, I probably should have made this move years ago. I really feel for the agency force that is left behind and I feel your concerns for the agency force in the U.S. Good luck and keep us informed with your news letter. Just an update...when they rolled out the new program in Canada senior management were asked by the U.S. how many agents would they lose. Their reply was ‘just the 2 that left in July.’ As of May the 1st there will be 50 agents. Recently, on the 11th of April, four senior managers and their staff left Allstate for the broker field. This made the folks at head office crazy. President Mike Donoghue, from what we hear, is going nuts…they were not expecting this reaction. So, I think your people in the U.S. will be safe from the Canadian program. April 4, 2008 We, at CASFAA Inc. are very interested in the eventual outcome of former agent Rod Larocque’s dispute with Allstate Insurance Company of Canada and believe it will greatly impact all intermediaries regardless of insurer affiliation. The wider implications of this suit also serve, once again, to focus attention on the need for legislation in the Provinces to protect all intermediaries in our industry from the threat or action of contract termination without “just cause”. All too often, the very threat of contract termination has been used as a means of maintaining the master/servant relationship that often exists between insurers and their representatives to control 14 — Exclusivefocus Summer 2008
letters to NAPAA the Independent Contractor and not always to the benefit of the insuring public. Despite a number of attempts to motivate governments to act on this issue, CASFAA Inc. and others have been unsuccessful so we are hopeful that this issue will act as the catalyst for government action. CASFAA Inc. continues to work through government officials in Ontario to bring about the much needed “just cause” legislation as well as a better form of whistleblower protection than is currently being considered as we feel that only truly independent advisors can represent their customers properly. Richard Gibbons Past President and Legislative Liason – CASFAA Inc. Editors note: CASFAA is the Canadian State Farm Agents Association. Here’s an interesting story. It’s about the Barber brothers. Former Allstate Canada agents, Bryan and Neil Barber wanted to purchase a building for their Allstate NOA. Last spring they approached Allstate for approval, which they granted the first week of June, just seven weeks prior to the July 24 announcement. Shortly after the meeting, the Barber brothers contacted Allstate and inquired what management planned on doing to compensate them for their potential loss. Allstate’s response apparently was, “We are not responsible for your personal investment decisions.” Bryan and Neil Barber tendered their notice in April and have opened up an All-Risk brokerage in their old NOA location in Toronto. Here’s another one: An agent in the Burlington/Oakville area had planned a vacation a couple of months in advance. Like most of the AIAs [Allstate Insurance Agencies], his opening was moved up by 3 weeks, with little notice. His DBD, Rose Cisterna, told him that because of the early opening, he had to cancel his vacation. The agent’s response was that he was stressed and in need of a vacation and that his family was looking forward to going away. He went on vacation and Rose Cisterna fired him (while on working notice) for insubordination. This agent majored (or minored) in HR in university and stated that apparently you can’t fire anyone for insubordination in Ontario. We’ll see what happens now. I was speaking with one of our local agents last evening and asked him how things were going in the new AIA. He told me that he feels as though he is working in a modern-day ‘sweat shop’. He logs in the morning, signs in on his phone, turns on his computer and finds a list of prospects to contact in CRMS. After everyone is contacted, he has to add notes to the electronic file and save them, so that head office can track his activity. When he left the office the other day to meet his former business partner for a coffee, he noticed that his Agency Manager, a former colleague, had followed him to see where he was going. He’s also been told that he can no longer have his cell phone on while in the office. (Are we in grade school now I wonder if he can still chew gum). This is advancement Dreamers... these are the stories that we need to get to the press. I guess Allstate is trying to make my life miserable by doing the following: 1- They’ve directed all my personal mail to their new office and are refusing to contact the post office to redirect my mail. 2- For over a month I have no idea where my mail is. In fact, I have bills that have not been paid to suppliers and utility companies. 3- Allstate left damages to office walls leased by me and never cared about offering to repair the damages of over $1000. 4- I received a call from Allstate Human Resources telling me that I should advise my former office partner that he should not communicate to me any confidential information or customer information from the Allstate office, or he will be subject to disciplinary action and possible loss of his job. 5- When customers call my former Allstate office looking for me, they receive different answer every time; I am either on vacation, or out of the office, or not in the office at the moment, when they all know that I resigned. 6- The company sent a letter to all its customers with my electronic signature advising them that I would be moving to the new Allstate office after they knew that I had no intention of moving there. In fact, I was the only agent that was not invited to a full day training session while still employed because of this. 7- I was followed on occasions by the new Agency Manager. He is trying to prove to Allstate that my former partner and I have been communicating Allstate information. Thanks for keeping us informed of the developments here in Canada. This seems to be the only way that we are kept in the loop because the company is not forthcoming. In addition, articles that have been printed in Exclusivefocus are most informative and much appreciated. I am another agent very disillusioned with the events over past 10 months. I will be leaving the company at the first opportunity, like so many others. Summer 2008 Exclusivefocus — 15
Page 1 and 2: Exclusivefocus Summer 2008 An Offic
Page 3 and 4: We finance Allstate books of busine
Page 6 and 7: president’s letter Farewell Messa
Page 8 and 9: usiness opportunities to increase a
Page 10 and 11: letters to NAPAA I wish to terminat
Page 12 and 13: letters to NAPAA ker friends are la
Page 16 and 17: 16 — Exclusivefocus Summer 2008
Page 18 and 19: the thief becomes your health infor
Page 20 and 21: agent issues The Kafka Interview IN
Page 22 and 23: [ “I think that Canada is the tes
Page 24 and 25: usiness Would You Like Fries With T
Page 26 and 27: feature There Must be a Better Way.
Page 28 and 29: elated bonus. His first step is to
Page 30 and 31: company is “unwilling or unable
Page 32 and 33: Is a sea of paperwork slowing you d
Page 34 and 35: membership musings Standing By You
Page 36 and 37: whether spending this amount of mon
Page 38 and 39: AAs most of you know who have been
Page 40 and 41: technology What To Expect When It
Page 42 and 43: integrated or separate video card,
Page 44 and 45: onus from Allstate, such as the rat
Page 46 and 47: technology Allstate Agents Have a C
Page 48 and 49: June 10, 2008 Ladies and Gentlemen
Page 50 and 51: on my behalf. Allstate did offer to
Page 52 and 53: and better refine your analysis. If
Page 54 and 55: staffing Is Your Staff “Engaged
Page 56 and 57: usiness tips Stronger Documentation
Page 58 and 59: organizing your business Forming an
Page 60 and 61: the NAPAA market place Agencies for
Page 62: the NAPAA market place Agencies for

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