News
Hope Springs Eternal
Newsletter – Wednesday, April 1, 2009
March in Western PA is a great time of year. Of course, it’s not just the weather and the longer days that get the juices flowing again, but March Madness has no rival! I was hoping to sing the praises of the Pitt Men’s Basketball team after this weekend, but it was just not meant to be. I guess President Obama and I are both out of the basketball pool. On the up side – we still have a great Pennsylvania and Big East team in the Final Four, so… GO ‘NOVA!
You know they say spring is the season of hope, and I have a few things on my ‘Hope List’ for this year. I am hoping that the carriers will get a wake-up call when they publish their 2008 results in April. I read in a report last week that prior to 2008 the insurance industry as a whole had about $14 billion of claims redundancy built into their results. The report went on to say that carriers were expected to use about $9 billion of that for losses from last year. I promised I was not going to make any more hard market predictions because I used all mine up in the 90’s. But as sure as I can smell spring in the air, I smell change coming to the market.
Another item on my Hope List is opportunity. We have been seeing some great opportunities in the commercial auto arena lately. While there may be fewer trucking companies due to the economic downturn, the ones that are still operating seem to be well managed and have a better quality of drivers, which my carriers love. I know that last summer’s spike in fuel prices strained many independent operators to the breaking point, and as a result we are seeing more fleet operations as opposed to the owner operator accounts. In any situation where survival of the fittest is the rule, the better risks seem to be flourishing. When it comes to trucking, my companies are eating this up – they are willing to be aggressive on the best risks. If you haven’t thought of us for your trucking business, you should. Shoot us the app you have completed or go onto our website and complete our truck quick quote sheet on-line. In less time than you think we can provide you with a quote, often in less than 48 hours.
Nothing is better than Hope fulfilled, and when it comes to competitive motorcycle products, I have to say our carriers are in the best shape they have ever been. You know spring is here when you see motorcycles on the road. Early results coming in are showing our markets are beating the direct writers like Progressive and Geico. Great rates are not always enough – so when it comes to ease of doing business, Tuscano’s sweetens the pot. You can access the carrier portals with a single sign-on from Tuscano’s web site. This means that once you are logged into Tuscano’s you can get right into the company portal without having to sign in again or remember another password! This means rating, binding, taking payments, and checking on policies is simply easier to do when you write your business with the Tuscano Agency!
Finally, I hope you think of Tuscano’s for your difficult to place manufacturing, distributing, or professional liability account. We have the markets and the expertise to place the heavier products or professional exposures and our Heavy Casualty & Professional team certainly loves to work on your challenging accounts. By now you know we excel at turnaround and service on your middle-market GL risks. Now is the time to see how well we can handle your larger brokerage business - 100K plus accounts. Give Deb Stoner or Robin a call with your next challenge and see how well they rise to it!
Hope is in the air!
You know they say spring is the season of hope, and I have a few things on my ‘Hope List’ for this year. I am hoping that the carriers will get a wake-up call when they publish their 2008 results in April. I read in a report last week that prior to 2008 the insurance industry as a whole had about $14 billion of claims redundancy built into their results. The report went on to say that carriers were expected to use about $9 billion of that for losses from last year. I promised I was not going to make any more hard market predictions because I used all mine up in the 90’s. But as sure as I can smell spring in the air, I smell change coming to the market.
Another item on my Hope List is opportunity. We have been seeing some great opportunities in the commercial auto arena lately. While there may be fewer trucking companies due to the economic downturn, the ones that are still operating seem to be well managed and have a better quality of drivers, which my carriers love. I know that last summer’s spike in fuel prices strained many independent operators to the breaking point, and as a result we are seeing more fleet operations as opposed to the owner operator accounts. In any situation where survival of the fittest is the rule, the better risks seem to be flourishing. When it comes to trucking, my companies are eating this up – they are willing to be aggressive on the best risks. If you haven’t thought of us for your trucking business, you should. Shoot us the app you have completed or go onto our website and complete our truck quick quote sheet on-line. In less time than you think we can provide you with a quote, often in less than 48 hours.
Nothing is better than Hope fulfilled, and when it comes to competitive motorcycle products, I have to say our carriers are in the best shape they have ever been. You know spring is here when you see motorcycles on the road. Early results coming in are showing our markets are beating the direct writers like Progressive and Geico. Great rates are not always enough – so when it comes to ease of doing business, Tuscano’s sweetens the pot. You can access the carrier portals with a single sign-on from Tuscano’s web site. This means that once you are logged into Tuscano’s you can get right into the company portal without having to sign in again or remember another password! This means rating, binding, taking payments, and checking on policies is simply easier to do when you write your business with the Tuscano Agency!
Finally, I hope you think of Tuscano’s for your difficult to place manufacturing, distributing, or professional liability account. We have the markets and the expertise to place the heavier products or professional exposures and our Heavy Casualty & Professional team certainly loves to work on your challenging accounts. By now you know we excel at turnaround and service on your middle-market GL risks. Now is the time to see how well we can handle your larger brokerage business - 100K plus accounts. Give Deb Stoner or Robin a call with your next challenge and see how well they rise to it!
Hope is in the air!