Introduction
For a long time, the insurance business has been booming within consumer segments adding new types of products daily.
With an increase in the gamut of audiences looking for newer products, there remains an increased surge in consumers looking for customized or tailor-made solutions.
Therefore, an insurance advisor or agent must examine the overall demographics and the independent requirements of every prospect before he showcases the right plan for insurance subscribers.
On this note, let us understand what a property and casualty insurance agent does, as well as his roles and responsibilities, in detail.
Property and Casualty Insurance Explained
Property and casualty insurance is a specific domain that covers risks, injuries, or accidents that happen amongst people or their belongings.
You have specific insurance companies that take care of the Property and Casualty domain commonly known as the P&C insurers.
These companies provide comprehensive coverage against loss of assets arising from accidents, injuries, or damages to properties and belongings on the whole.
Therefore, the P&C insurance companies have the license to provide four types of insurance products under their umbrella. These are:
- Auto Insurance
- Marine Insurance
- Home Insurance and
- Professional Liability Insurance
Types of Insurance Products that Fall Under P&C:
Let us now discuss the four types of insurance products that fall under P&C. Helping you get a detailed overview of each of the above:
- Auto Insurance
Auto insurance is a type of insurance coverage you get when your cars or automobiles collide with another vehicle. You may have to pay accidental coverage to the third party in case- an accidental collision happens due to your fault.
On the other hand, when a third party is at fault concerning colliding with your vehicle you receive compensation from them in place of the same. Either way, auto insurance helps you facilitate payments to either party who is involved in an accident.
- Marine Insurance
Almost two-thirds of products that are imported or exported across different economies of the world happen via marine vessels. Shipping companies therefore have to cover products from pilferage or damage due to sinking ships or mishaps the shipping vessels may encounter while loading or unloading goods and products.
Marine insurance pays retailers or wholesale distributors in case of damage to products or pilferage of goods due to calamities that happen in the sea provided you are covered by the same.
- Home Insurance
As such, billions of dollars are spent by people worldwide towards replacing ceilings that seep during monsoons, repainting walls of buildings and properties, or replacing flush toilets that no longer work.
To cover the huge amount of expenses towards each of them is why homeowners prefer taking home insurance.
Home insurance is a type of insurance that provides coverage for home-related repairs or refurbishments.
And, this is a type of insurance package homeowners or property owners take in lieu of maintaining their homes and commercial properties.
- Professional Liability Insurance
Some companies particularly in the financial planning and wealth management sectors aim to take up professional liability insurance in case their employees indulge in misappropriation of funds or abscond leading to loss of business and clientele for the brand.
In case the firm loses clients or stakeholders arising out of employees’ misbehavior or negligence, the company must make sure the loss coverage is done to keep the business entity up and running.
Here, employers take professional liability insurance to cover loss of revenue arising from decreased productivity levels of employees increasing attrition rates, or incidents of misconduct or theft.
Such cautions are also exercised in various other industries like like healthcare, legal services, and consulting.
Suggested Reads: What are Property and Casualty Insurers
Property and Casualty Insurance Agent- Duties and Responsibilities
As we have seen the overall clusters covering the P&C domain, now let us understand the duties and responsibilities of a property and casualty insurance agent. Helping you with the same:
1. Defining the Target Demography
You find that customers take insurance products via online channels or retail outlets. Therefore, the customer demographics must be charted out by the property and casualty insurance agent or advisory systematically and diligently.
The insurance agents and the advisors may have to take a broader view of the market and demarcate insurance subscribers between retail and online channels.
The agents must have a clearer articulation of the core target segments vis-a-vis the products they are offering.
2. Increasing Digital Presence
The insurance agent or the advisor may have to increase digital presences to cater to consumers belonging to the online markets.
The tactics or mechanisms you channelize for offline segments may not be sufficient to cater to a diverse online retail investing segment.
Therefore, prospects who ply online must be catered to using digital marketing strategies you have in the industry.
On that note, let us have an overview of what these digital marketing strategies are:
2.1 Having an online website in place
The advisor must coordinate with teammates to build an online website in place. You can include products, premium plans, and lucrative offers that are ongoing for new members or subscribers.
2.2 Having an improved UI/UX design
The website must be designed in such a way that it opens on desktops, mobile phones, and smartphone tablets. Therefore, to accelerate the digital presence of a brand, the UI/UX design of the website must be improved so that you have great compatibility to work on each of the digital devices.
2.3 Customization add-ons
To add to a more personalized or customized experience for insurance members, you can add customization pop-ups on the insurance website. This way, you can allow insurers to pick their products or pick their subscription plans online. You can allow them to fill out their forms online.
And, then, the customer care executive or the managers get in touch with them further. These add-ons can save time and money for members to walk down to retail offices to get things sorted for their membership plans.
3. Showcase Professionalism and Expertise While Dealing with Clients
A property and casualty insurance agent is supposed to display an impeccable degree of professionalism while dealing with retail clients and other stakeholders.
The agent must display his thorough expertise and knowledge while discussing different products that fall under the P&C domain. The advisor can also discuss the pros and cons of every product the insurer or a prospective member shows interest in.
The plans must be discussed at length neatly and politely by the agent or advisor who meets the client at their place.
4. Understand the Appetite for the Creation of Customized Products
The border retail segment has a dire appetite for the creation of tailored and personalized products that customers may want to get a hold of. This is because each consumer wants to catch up with a product that satisfies their independent needs or requirements on the whole.
Some consumers do not mind paying an extra premium if they have a customized product that takes care of their independent preferences.
Therefore, the P&C agent or advisor must thoroughly understand the appetite for the creation of tailor-made or customized products that translate into real-time demands for these products.
This can be done by applying product expertise, and knowledge and by sprinkling a little bit of creativity while curating insurance products for consumers and small-scale enterprises.
Career Opportunities for Property and Casualty Insurance Agents
To take up a career path as an insurance sales agent, you must understand insurance laws and pursue continuing education to the same. You can choose a solid education course as taking up an MBA program that specializes in the Insurance domain as a whole.
This way, you would have a better overview of how agents make insurance laws, how the occupation works across demographics, how a broker earns commissions, how a prospective applicant converts into a potential client, and a lot more. You can understand the tangential median behind which the insurance business revolves around.
Upon continuing a specialization program in insurance, you understand the job outlook better. You may have a qualifying exam to take post which you can start applying for insurance-related jobs that can guarantee you attractive salary packages after all.
The Bottom Line
Agents and advisors must make extensive use of digital devices to translate better and more precise consumers for the insurance segment comprising retail and commercial consumers.
They should also explain the risks associated with signing up for insurance products so that the consumers have well-defined cues on what scenarios they may come up with in the future.
The agents can also discuss relevant tax implications in terms of tax waivers on a select group of insurance products so that more members sign up for them.
