News
News & Views: The Simple Pleasures in Life
Newsletter – Thursday, August 2, 2018
Last week I found a few hours in my over-booked weekend to mow my grass. Pretty mundane stuff really, but the coolest thing happened while I was sitting on my mower – my barn swallows showed up. OK – sounds lame, after all, they aren’t my barn swallows per se, but they have been living in my barn for years. I had not seen them yet this summer, but as I was running the mower and stirring up all of the bugs in the grass, they started swooping in and feasting. And that brought the biggest, silliest grin to my face!
Sitting on my mower in that field, I felt happiness deep in my being – life is good and the barn swallows brought that out in me. And that made me reflect; the problem with enjoying fine things or living with contentment makes one forget what simple happiness feels like.
Low and behold, I had a second shot at feeling truly, giddily happy this week. Tuscano Agency just hit another production milestone for the second time in as many months! What makes me happiest is not the premium so much as what I believe it indicates; our efforts to give you the best experience when working with a wholesaler are making a difference. If I can make you happy, then I get it back ten-fold! That’s what makes it such a great business, we win when you win!
There is no denying the fact that the commercial auto market is very hot right now. Our Transportation Team is working diligently to get to all of your new submissions. They will tell you that they can be most successful when you call to discuss a risk before sending it in. If you can give a brief background of the account and the history of the risk, they will be much better at advising what markets we have and their appetites - and most importantly if they think they can compete. We are working on beefing up our underwriting capacity in Transportation and on that note I have some good news to share. We recently promoted Connor Patterson to a full-fledged, front-line commercial auto underwriter. (Connor came to us a year ago from Atlanta as an underwriter trainee). Please welcome Connor; he is excited to start working on your trucking submissions!
It doesn’t really matter what type of account you have on your desk, we are always happy to discuss a risk with you on the phone. Regardless of the line of business – Package, Property, Casualty, Professional, Work Comp, or Personal Lines – we operate best when we have the opportunity to discuss an account. I wish we could write everything that we receive, but sadly, that’s not how it works in our world. Knowing in advance what the circumstances and the history of the risk are can help us advise you and set expectations. I don’t know if that’s how you prefer to do business, but we are convinced that you’d much prefer an honest assessment instead of being told ‘just send me the app’. As an added bonus, you get to talk to some of the nicest people in the business and we get to know you a little better!
Next week is our annual underwriting meeting. We have all of our underwriting staff coming to our Greensburg office. We take advantage of having everyone here to socialize, discuss the markets, and hold some training sessions. In fact, it gets quite boisterous (a happy crowd!) with everyone in the office all week! We apologize in advance if you have to leave a voicemail, but we promise we'll be prompt in responding.
That’s all I have. I hope you have an occasion to feel truly happy this week and every week!