Carrier Advocacy

Big I NY members have exclusive access to our library of more than 85 company contract reviews.

The National Big “I” legal team reviews agency company contracts to ensure they are fair and equitable to both parties. They also make recommendations for improvements to the contract language. Agents can use these reviews when negotiating a company contract. 

Our legal team has also reviewed contracts at our request.

Big I New York & Big I Connecticut Joint Position 

We believe that independent insurance agents serve customers best. They provide trusted advice and the right coverage options to protect what matters most and are typically consumers’ first and last resource. Not only are independent agents vital for consumers, they are also to the insurers they represent.

The Big I New York board of directors has adopted a policy statement on agent compensation and appointments. The board intends it for all insurance industry stakeholders. The statement highlights that:

• Independent agents and brokers play a critical, unique role in the insurance marketplace.
• Agency compensation should fairly reflect the value that agents provide.
• Insurers should have discussions with their distribution force before taking any significant action.
• Insurers do face significant challenges in the current hard market.
• Regardless, “the practice of reducing agent compensation and terminating agency appointments is rash and misguided.”
• When insurers inappropriately terminate agency appointments, they hinder agents’ ability to serve the needs of their community.

We do want to express our gratitude to the companies that have remained steadfast partners with independent agencies. Their continued support and commitment demonstrate resilience in all market conditions, and we commend them for it.

The board of directors discussed and approved the policy.

Recommendations on common contract language:

The proliferation of separate technology contracts for independent agencies and brokerages has created quite a problem.

In many cases, we find contradictory provisions between the technology contract and the agency contract. More troubling are the “click-through” agreements that are frequently required to access carrier websites or databases. Many agencies and brokerages are inadvertently altering their ownership of expirations and work product agreements, and in some cases, exposing themselves to risky E&O claims.

We’ve worked tirelessly with our attorneys to create an addendum for agents and brokers to tender to their carriers, making it clear that the agency agreement controls the relationship.

We have prepared the addendum for use in two ways:

Signed

The preferred use would be to tender the addendum to your carrier with your signature and a place for the carrier’s signature and return to you.

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Unsigned

The other way we have prepared it is for you to simply provide the addendum without signatures for addition to your agency contract.