Key Takeaways:
- Shopping with an independent insurance agent provides several key benefits that can prevent these pitfalls, alleviate client concerns, and even lead to lower premiums, less exposure, and better coverage.
- Independent agents’ broad expertise offers particular value in analyzing the fine print, differentiating between various carriers and coverages, and working alongside clients to seek the insurance solutions that best meet client needs.
- As an independent brokerage, TRB Insurance makes the difference for clients by providing freedom common to independent agents, but with the specialty and personal knowledge of a local agent
TRB Insurance: Independent Specialists with Local Expertise
If you have ever owned or rented a home, a car, or large asset of any kind, you have most likely shopped for an insurance policy. This process of seeking quotes and differentiating between coverages and carriers can be fraught with frustration and result in leaving you with money on the table, or worse, with more exposure to risk than you need or wanted.
Shopping with an independent insurance agent from TRB Insurance Agency LLC provides several key benefits that can prevent these pitfalls, alleviate client concerns, and even lead to lower premiums, less exposure, and better coverage.
The Independent Insurance Agent Advantage
Quotes and Coverages from Multiple Insurance Carriers
- Captive agents can only provide the best coverage offered by their carrier, which may be slightly over your budget or may not meet your exact needs. However, independent agents work with many different carriers. This includes large national insurance carriers as well as regional carriers and can provide quotes from them all based on your insurance needs.
- Access to multiple carriers provides independent agents more flexibility and a broader range of available options, which can lead to lower premiums, more product diversity, and more nuanced coverages.
- Ryan Newman, TRB Insurance Division President, explains that “As an independent insurance agency, our agents at TRB Insurance offer unique advantages, not only competitive policies from premier national carriers, but also first-class service and tailored insurance solutions provided by locals for locals.”
Insurance Product Diversity
- Captive agents are limited to only the insurance products offered by their carrier which can create limitations for clients with specific needs or multiple needs.
- Further, some carriers are highly specialized, prioritizing or only offering certain products, causing a stressful experience for potential clients forced to shop multiple carriers or agents seeking a patchwork of coverages to meet their needs.
- Independent agents, however, are more like a single origin solution for their clients, providing practiced market expertise, removing the shopping burden, offering product variety from a broad range of carriers, and covering client needs from all angles, be they home, auto, watercraft, rentals, business insurance and more.
- Newman states that as an independent, full-service broker, TRB Insurance offers products “of all shapes and sizes, including personal lines, commercial lines, and employee benefits from some of the industry’s most recognizable companies, but we specialize not in a particular insurance product, but in custom-tailoring a portfolio of solutions to meet the needs of each individual client.”
More Expertise with Less Limitation
- Whether captive or independent, insurance agents offer significant expertise you miss when you shop alone or online, and leveraging an expert will save you the hours and stress of searching for just the right policy one carrier at a time.
- Additionally, while captive agents offer market experience and advice, they are limited by the products offered by their carrier and will naturally prioritize their carrier over others available—a one-size-fits-all approach.
- With access to a wider range of large and small carriers, independent agents generally have a broader expertise and without alliances to one particular carrier, resulting in a variety quotes and products—a case-by-case approach.
- Independent agents’ broad expertise offers particular value in analyzing the fine print, differentiating between various carriers and coverages, and working alongside clients to seek the insurance solutions that best meet client needs.
- Newman clarified the division’s client-focused approach, saying “We position ourselves with our industry partners to best serve our clients with a premium on freedom and flexibility. We take a proactive and consultative approach to managing our client’s insurance needs as they evolve over time.”
Local Insurance Experts and Lifelong Neighbors
- Among the greatest benefits of an independent agent is a personal and ongoing relationship with a single point of contact that can manage your various coverages and policies and provide peace of mind throughout changing needs and evolving markets.
- Independent agents tend to be local and when needed, face to face. With familiarity and personal knowledge of the region and community they serve, your problems are their problems too.
- The customer experience of working with a local, independent agent makes evolving needs simple to navigate. If you need to find new coverage, switch carriers, or renew a policy, your independent agent is the same contact point and can manage the paperwork on your behalf. You’re calling someone you know, not a customer service line.
As we build new relationships every day in the communities we serve, we position ourselves to get great results because we don’t strive to be the people who know the insurance business and put it first; we strive to be ‘the people you know’ in the insurance business—who put our clients first.
Ryan Newman
The TRB Insurance Advantage
As an independent brokerage, TRB Insurance Agency LLC makes the difference for clients by providing freedom common to independent agents, but with the specialty and personal knowledge of a local agent. Having an independent agent from TRB Insurance partner with you to find coverage that meets your unique needs unlocks key advantages, like more available insurance options from more carriers, less limitations and restrictions, and a broader base of expertise all provided by TRB Insurance within your local community bank. And with nationwide partners, and expertise spanning many regions across Texas, TRB Insurance combines personalized insurance advice with local decision-making and more nuanced perspectives often overlooked by larger institutions.
