The Kansas/Missouri President’s Advisory Council for SECURA Insurance met Nov. 3 via Zoom.
Agent Representatives
Doug Clift, Midwest Risk Partners; Joel Karsten, Charles L. Crane Agency; Tracy Stewart, Daniel & Henry Company; Jeff Roberts, DeWitt Insurance; Aaron Sharpe, Nixon & Lindstrom Insurance; Kurt Wallace, Cornerstone Kansas City
SECURA Representatives
Dave Gross, President & CEO; Larry Wright, Vice President and Chief Claims Officer; Marty Arnold, SVP and Chief Underwriting Officer; Tim Heyroth, Vice President and Chief Sales Officer; Garth Wicinsky, SVP & Chief Administrative Officer; Amy DeHart,Vice President and Chief Actuarial Officer; Brett Purcell, Regional Sales Director
We kicked off our meeting with showing the updated brand video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMeS5GfOyoE&feature=emb_logo
Watch the video below for an overview and SECURA updates.
Click the links below to navigate to the comment/response section for each topic.
Personal Lines | Commercial Lines | Specialty Lines | Risk Management | Claims | Miscellaneous
Personal Lines
(Agent comments with SECURA responses)
1. Comment: You have a siding match endorsement – have you looked into the same for roofs?
Response: We continue to review the marketplace and agency feedback and at this point, we don’t hear a high demand for roof match coverage, nor see many carriers offering. Rather we’re in the process of developing a highly requested endorsement for cosmetic loss coverage on metal roofs. Missouri will have this new endorsement available April 1, 2021.
Commercial Lines
(Agent comments with SECURA responses)
1. Comment: Getting ahead of renewals is pivotal.
Response: We appreciate the feedback and will continue to coach our underwriters to provide renewals in a timely manner.
2. Comment: Underwriters are excellent to work with.
Response: We are glad to hear this. We appreciate the feedback.
3. Comment: We would like it if BizLink was more intuitive (prefilling more with less information).
Response: Thank you. We are continually looking for ways to improve BizLink and hope to make additional enhancements as we develop future versions.
4. Comment: Good BizLink feedback so far! Easy to use.
Response: We appreciate the feedback on BizLink. Please continue to provide us additional feedback as you utilize the system in order for us to adapt where possible.
5. Comment: What are your plans for commercial download? (working with Ivans)
Response: We currently offer download to Agency Management Systems for the following transaction types: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines (Auto and Work Comp only), Claims, Billing, and eDocs. We will soon be adding all remaining lines of business within Commercial Lines (Package, GL, Umbrella, BOP, etc.) with an anticipated live date of Q1 2021.
6. Comment: It takes too much time to get policy numbers on newly bound accounts? We wait 2-3 days.
Response: Thank you for the candid feedback. We will aim to deliver policy numbers in a timelier manner.
7. Comment: When a lienholder or other interest is present on a policy, and SECURA sends notice of intent to cancel, the premium amount is disclosed to all parties. Should it be?
Response: SECURA has taken the position of being transparent on the dollar amount and delinquency. Disclosing the amount minimizes questions and concerns for the lienholder, while allowing the option for the lienholder to pay on behalf of the insured to protect their investment.
8. Comment: When will BizLink be expanded to retail classes?
Response: We are currently working on BizLink Release 3 which includes the addition of retail, office, and service BOP classes to the existing Target Contractor classes. We are also working on some user experience enhancements based on direct feedback from our agency partners and also straight through processing for some Specialty Lines classes. In addition, the team will continue to address feedback concerns and suggestions and implement changes/updates accordingly
9. Comment: What are your thoughts on a Service Center?
Response: We’ve approved the concept of a Commercial Lines Service Center and are in the early planning stages. We plan on rolling out in a crawl, walk, run method starting with about four staff members and a very small group of agencies. The addition of Specialty Lines in that model is under consideration.
Our main objective is to have flexible, thorough, knowledgeable staff members who can provide our insureds excellent customer service and maintain open communication with our agents. Our rollout would start with commercial classes, account size $10,000 and under. We’re aiming to provide full service including endorsements, certificate of insurance, renewals, upselling/cross-selling and all other insured inquiries. We do not have an estimate live date established at this time, but are working on resource allocation and project mobilization in early 2021.
Specialty Lines
(Agent comments with SECURA responses)
1. Comment: Barb is great to work with.
Response: Thank you for that great compliment about Barb! She really has a lens on what the agents need and she tries to deliver that every day. Thanks again!
Risk Management
(Agent comments with SECURA responses)
1. Comment: We would like to see reports quicker.
Response: SECURA does not publish our survey reports. Each Risk Management Consultant has up to 7 days to complete a report after the visit (current team average is less than 3 days). If there are recommendations, when the report is completed and closed out within our system, the rec letters are automatically emailed to the insured and agent at that time. If we don’t have your email address, it is mailed to you within 3 business days.
2. Comment: Have you considered offering OSHA classes?
Response: We offer a multitude of both online and in-person training opportunities. Please connect with your RMC to talk about your particular needs.
3. Comment: We would like to see better communication and/or service plan coordination.
Response: Service plans are devised and decided upon by the insured and RMC during the first survey visit. Agents are notified of and invited to service visits as they are any other type of visit. We will review to see if there is a better way to keep you updated.
4. Comment: They do a great job! Dina is great.
Response: Thanks for the kind words, we think so too!
5. Comment: Are you allowing in-person visits?
Response: Our visit strategy puts the personal safety of our Risk Managers, you, and your insureds first. If anyone feels uncomfortable with an in-person visit, we accomplish a phone survey and in some instances ask the insured forward photos/documentation to us. We also review the online resources available to the insured with them. If an in-person visit does occur, the Risk Manager will be wearing PPE, maintaining social distancing, and keep a contact tracing log in the event an illness occurs after the visit. Currently, there is no timeframe as to when we will be able to stop operating like this.
Claims
(Agent comments with SECURA responses)
1. Comment: No complaints.
Response: Great to hear you are not currently experiencing any claims issues.
2. Comment: Do you have a communication strategy based on size of loss?
Response: Work comp best practices call for the claim rep to contact the agent on reserve changes of $25,000 up or down. If an agency has a claims person on staff, most of the time we communicate with that individual, who may or may not always communicate further within the agency. If there is something we should do differently to communicate better with your agency, please let us know.
Best practices for our Property area is to contact the agent on a reserve change of $50,000 or more and to communicate with you on denials.
Best practices for our Casualty and Claims Legal area is to contact the agent on a reserve change of $25,000 or more.
3. Comment: We would like you to update more frequently on larger claims.
Response: We have found that the agency expectation around the amount of communication on larger claims varies greatly. On a work comp claim for example, we tend to be in regular communication with the actual insured. Some agents do want to be in the loop and others not so much, unless it is bad news. If you wish to be communicated with more often on specific large claims, please reach out to the claims file handler or their supervisor and we will do our best to meet your expectations.
4. Comment: We like available claims notes – the more the better.
Response: Thank you for the compliment. We are glad to hear that our claims notes available on AgentLink are meeting your needs.
Miscellaneous
(Agent comments with SECURA responses)
1. Comment: SECURA’s communication was very good – no issues during the pandemic. Some carriers were not prepared and others over-communicated.
Response: Thank you for this feedback. We focus our communication to make sure you get the information you need while not sending too many messages. You can confirm whether you or others from your agency are set up to receive SECURA emails in AgentLink under My Agency > Agency Information > Email Addresses.
2. Comment: Responsiveness from SECURA around COVID-19 has been amazing.
Response: Thank you! We appreciate that you’ve found our efforts to address COVID in an informative but not overwhelming manner.
3. Comment: Have you thought about 1-hour video courses (Acuity does an outstanding job here).
Response: We actually do offer video self-study CE courses. We have 17 general courses available and 3 ethics courses available. As always, these are free for our SECURA agents. You can find the available courses by going to AgentLink, SECURA Academy, Register for Courses. If you have any topic ideas, or any questions on our CE programs, feel free to reach out to Angela Kain – Manager of Agency Training at angela_kain@secura.net.
4. Comment: We would like to see selling skills course for younger producers.
Response: We do offer a variety of selling skills training for newer producers. We offer a 12-week new producer training program twice per year, we have live webinars scheduled periodically on different selling techniques, and we also have recorded videos on selling tips and tricks. For additional information, please contact Angela Kain – Manager of Agency Training at angela_kain@secura.net.
5. Comment: Do you have a niche selling webinar? CE?
Response: We are offering a Niche Selling webinar on Dec. 3, 2020. For this webinar, due to state regulations, we cannot offer CE. We do have many other CE webinars scheduled for 2020 and 2021. All of our webinars can be found by going to AgentLink, SECURA Academy, Register for Courses.
6. Comment: Do you have a work from home update for SECURA?
Response: We have approximately 100 associates working in the office per day on a voluntary basis. We are expecting that until summer 2021.
7. Comment: What are your state expansion plans?
Response: We are looking at it, but it is probably still a few years from rollout. Prioritized and moving forward with.
8. Comment: Marla is great. Regular contact/communication – going well.
Response: Thank you! We feel Marla is providing great value to her territory and our agency partners as well!