Why Life and Health Agents Need to Consider a Property and Casualty License

By Jonathan Decker

Selling life and health insurance can be a rewarding, not to mention lucrative, career. As an agent, you play a valuable role in your clients’ lives by helping protect their loved ones from the financial repercussions of an unexpected illness, injury or death.

However, even as you secure much-needed peace of mind for your clients, you can find yourself unhappy with your business due to low revenue or earnings, poor customer retention or even professional malaise from feeling like you’ve yet to find your product niche. Luckily, many opportunities are available for you to expand your horizons and find the product that meets your financial needs, expands your customer base and secures the financial future of your dreams.

One way you can do that is to become a one-stop agent for your clients by binding across life and health (L&H) and property and casualty (P&C) lines. Enhance your success as an agent by discovering the advantages of cross-selling; read on to learn how to get started and protect your evolving business.

The Benefits of Becoming a Multi-Line Insurance Agent

Cross-selling is a key growth opportunity for agents of all experience levels. Offering a single line of insurance, such as life and health, leaves you vulnerable to the greater convenience your competitors offer. Here are some of the ways incorporating multiple insurance lines into your business can help you succeed:

• Greater revenue streams – When you gain a new license, the number of policies you can write will instantly multiply.
• Expansion of your customer base – Insurance is a numbers game. The more lines you provide, the greater your pool of potential customers.
• Increased customer retention – With more insurance products, you’ll be better poised to meet your clients’ ongoing and evolving needs. Additionally, you’ll be able to offer them bundled deals, saving them money while increasing their loyalty to your business.
• New opportunities for carrier relationships – As you enter a new line of business, you can build relationships with different carriers. 

Most people get access to life and health coverage through their employer; depending on their age and health needs, they might not be interested in securing additional policies through your business. Conversely, P&C lines are required by nearly every consumer to protect their homes and vehicles, for example. Unlike life and health policies, an employer doesn’t usually provide these coverages.

By getting your P&C license, you’ll have the opportunity to sell a wide range of popular policy types, including:

• Auto
• Earthquake
• Flood
• Homeowners
• Liability
• Renters

Additionally, if you explore insurance agent cross-selling to expand your reach into commercial P&C  — such as commercial auto, liability and property insurance — your business customers will need more extensive insurance policies, meaning more revenue for you.

Getting Started

Much like when you secured your L&H license, there are a series of required steps before you can embark on your exciting future. Here’s what you need to know about getting your P&C license for life and health agents:

• Research your state’s requirements – Each state has its licensing process and regulations. Search for your state in the convenient Insurance Departments finder offered by the National Association of Insurance; from there, locate your state’s licensing requirements, exams, fees and other important information.
• Complete the pre-licensing requirements – In most states, you’re required to complete a certain number of education hours. These courses cover valuable information, such as the types of property and casualty policies, state and industry insurance regulations, detailed information regarding policy provisions and exclusions and more. You’ll have to pass an exam to be eligible to register for the state licensing exam.
• Pass the licensing test – Depending on your state, the format of your test may differ. Most are multiple-choice and must be completed within a specific time. 

Earning your P&C license can take months, not to mention the amount of time it’ll take you to feel comfortable writing policies under this new line. However, your efforts will be rewarded when you find new clients, strengthen relationships with your existing ones and achieve greater financial success.

In order to do that, your clients must know about your expanded business. Update your website, business card and any other places where your information is listed to reflect your new license. Offer these products at renewal, or take it a step further and market your P&C capabilities via email, social media and targeted online ad campaigns.

Protecting Your New Venture

Expanding your business offerings is a great way to gain new clients and offer convenient efficiency for your existing ones. However, it can be all too easy to make a mistake that costs your clients money or results in litigation. For example, you might still be familiarizing yourself with your new line of business and accidentally offer inadequate coverage advice. In that case, your client might sue you to recoup any losses they experience.

Therefore, it’s essential to protect your career and finances from claims of errors, omissions or professional negligence by enrolling in Errors and Omissions (E&O) Insurance through BCS. BCS understands the needs of multi-line insurance agents and offers special E&O coverage designed for your unique needs. With bundled life, health, property and casualty insurance for the newly licensed or experienced agent, BCS ensures you can mitigate your risks and confidently build the career of your dreams.

If you’re an existing customer, contact us today to upgrade your current policy to help manage your professional risk. If you’re an agent securing coverage for the first time with BCS, find more pricing and coverage details here.

For insurance agents, your desire to grow and succeed can come from many different places. Whether you’re considering a new line of business due to your hunger for change, pressure to keep up with household bills or unfulfillment with your current workload, expanding your insurance offerings can take your career to the next level. At BCS, we understand taking this leap can be scary; risk and time are involved in learning a new line of business. With our E&O coverage and other comprehensive insurance solutions, we’re here to support you every step of your career journey.

The information contained herein is offered as insurance Industry insight and provided as an overview of current market risks and available coverages and is intended for discussion purposes only. This publication is not intended to offer legal advice or client specific risk management advice. Any description of insurance coverages is not meant to interpret specific coverages that your company may already have in place or that may be generally available. General insurance descriptions contained herein do not include complete Insurance policy definitions, terms and/or conditions, and should not be relied on for coverage interpretation. Actual insurance policies must always be consulted for full coverage details and analysis. Gallagher publications may contain links to non-Gallagher websites that are created and controlled by other organizations. We claim no responsibility for the content of any linked website, or any link contained therein. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by Gallagher, as we have no responsibility for information referenced in material owned and controlled by other parties. Gallagher strongly encourages you to review any separate terms of use and privacy policies governing use of these third party websites and resources. Insurance brokerage and related services to be provided by Gallagher Affinity Insurance Services, Inc. (License No. 100310679 | CA License No. 0783129).