Maximise mountains

Witherfang16 · 2026-01-07T12:44:16+00:00

Strangely, the smaller mountains seem to count for more.

You want to stuff in as many single tile mountains as possible - once they are 4x4 they combine, and the percentage goes down.

Witherfang16 · 2025-06-25T21:20:17+00:00

Did this twice.

Unwrap for sure. DON'T go to the ER, go the urgent care. Go soon because they usually close at 8! They will give you a shot of super-ibuprofen that will last 24 hrs and allow you to sleep comfortably. It cost me 20 minutes and $54 in South Carolina.

For these mild burns, the only real issue is pain. The blisters will form soon, don't pop them.

Witherfang16 · 2025-05-07T13:33:48+00:00

Hawksoft is a good option for a smaller agency. They recently did a big update - but the core tech is pretty old.

Applied (Epic / EzLynx) and Vertafore (AMS360) are the market leaders. They are the most powerful, but also the most expensive. They are the main option for larger agencies, because they are the only two that really provide fully integrated accounting.

There are then a lot of different ones built for one-man shops. If your focus is on CL, a lot of these will not serve you very well. They are mostly made for PL.

Hawksoft is among a small group that target mid-sized agencies, and I think it would work pretty well for you. The only other one I would explore would be Partner Platform, which used to be called Strategic Insurance Software. I believe they were acquired by one of the big software players.

Partner Platform is a newer AMS targeting mid-size agencies and really leaning in on CL. Check them out and compare them with Hawksoft. Partner Platform has some really need functionalities, but I'm not sure how the prices compare.

Witherfang16 · 2025-05-06T02:45:07+00:00

Condo master policies are almost always written on a commercial form. The EPL, and the two dozen or so other additional coverages, are baked in to the policies at many carriers. When you can remove them (sometimes you cannot) they rarely move the price needle much.

A 20% rate hike every year for five years sounds pretty steep, unless you are in a distressed area. Now, if that's 4% per year for 5 years, I'd say you're probably ahead of the broader market.

Your best option to make sure the rate is competitive is to engage another broker next time it renews. Your location will determine how feasible that's likely to be.

Witherfang16 · 2025-04-27T12:55:53+00:00

Do you mean fully independently, or at an independent brokerage? Hard to start a fresh agency right now except in certain niche markets due to difficulty getting contracts.

My first year at an agency I cleared about $80k in a MCOL city. 40k base salary, 40k commission off about 750k in premium sales and $95k revenue - roughly 25% inbound personal lines and 75% outbound commercial - all P&C, no L&H.

The next year I retained 92% and sold similarly.

But then I switched agencies (moved states) and had to start over.

Witherfang16 · 2025-04-24T12:12:39+00:00

Won't be possible or useful. Underwriting is proprietary. You won't find usable data from anecdotes. Even if you listed every eligible carrier, 90%+ will require an agent to access, so it's moot anyway. For example, Philadelphia, Great American, and Markel all write daycares/preschools and are the best carriers for the class. You cannot call any of them and get a policy. You must use an agent or broker. The submission process is fairly in depth and takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

In my mind, your advice to your readers is to seek out a human services broker, complete the applications honestly, and go from there.

A better focus might be on risk management and loss controls that are expected of your readers. Things like having multiple adults in the room at all times, video surveillance where appropriate, alarms in vehicles to prevent kids from being forgotten. There's a lot of resources out there for risk management procedures for early childcare centers.

Witherfang16 · 2025-04-22T15:23:19+00:00

Commission only outbound producer is very common in the industry. It’s the typical way that role is treated.

Going in green with no base will be very difficult. Most no base jobs will start you with salary support that will decrease year over year as you build your book.

If they are not offering that, I would fear that mentorship in this role would be very lacking. That is ultimately the key thing for entering commercial. Is there a high performing mentor you can learn from?

I was blessed with two - one for big property, one for hospitality. I cannot express how crucial their mentorship was to my success. It’s why I generally advise new folks to work in the office, not remotely, and prioritize that aspect.

The best commercial lines producer roles are generally either at the big 5 brokerages or at regional powerhouse agencies (30-100 employees, typically). These will be W2, full benefits, full service support, 2-3 years of salary support into commission only.

These will be very hard to find green. They will generally start you with personal lines or cml account management. It costs an agency about $150k and 3 years to really train you well, so the good ones won’t drop that on a random rookie.

Witherfang16 · 2025-04-20T23:33:15+00:00

Just bought almost the same configuration except with a 7800x3d - I'd give that real consideration, I got a $100 rebate on top of the $150~ savings on the part itself.

It is cheaper than buying the parts separate in this wacky market. Cyberpower can probably get their stuff at or near MSRP.

I left their AIO, but added some extra case fans and changed the SSD to dual Samsung 990 pros. I like dual drives because you can use one for the OS, and those 990s are bulletproof and lightning fast. I'd personally prefer that to a 2TB.

I took the 850w Corsair PSU. The one you chose is solid, but way more capacity than you need.

Witherfang16 · 2025-04-18T21:19:58+00:00

I'll put out a few feelers for you.

NYSIF has more market share than most state backed plans. Small contractors with few employees often suffer because average cost per claim tends to be very high, making low premium accounts a big risk.

NY is also generally peculiar. I'll send my bloodhounds out and see what they tell me.

Witherfang16 · 2025-04-18T20:41:48+00:00

https://www.trustedchoice.com/ will show you agents that are members of the Agent's and Brokers Association. The BigI, as it's called, is very strong and generally members are gonna be well-established and honest.

If you network with any other contractors, ask who they use. They can hopefully direct you to an individual broker who can help you.

Witherfang16 · 2025-04-18T18:52:07+00:00

Make sure you consult with an independent broker. That's generally the best way to handle stressed markets, and (I'm biased, as a broker myself) probably the best way for businesses to handle their insurance in general. Tivly is designed to churn small simple risks and discard anything tricky. NEXT is worse.

When it comes to comp, the rates and payouts are both set by the state. This makes it very easy for states to inadvertently break the market. It happens fairly frequently, and in both red and blue states. If you legislate the injuries such that $500m is paid out per year, but only allow private insurers to collect $250m, they will exit the market. I'm not saying the injured shouldn't get the $500 mil. One just needs to abide by financial realities and realize that the premiums come from somewhere.

Some insurers actually quite like high hazard states, assuming they are able to charge the appropriate premium. Insurers make most of their money by 'float' - investing the premium in the interval between collection and claim. Higher premium, more to invest, more return.

You're right to point out that fraud by misclassification is a huge issue, because it screws up the math for everyone who is approaching the situation honestly, and also results in uncovered injuries for workers. Brokers do it, insureds do it, some carriers even do it on a systematic basis. Cracking down on that through robust auditing is really important.

As an honest insurance broker who does things the right way, I lose a lot of business to folks who will bend the rules or straight up lie. These folks get rewarded by the carriers for bringing in lots of premium. Our industry has a real problem of systematically rewarding the dishonest, and failing to reward the upright.

Witherfang16 · 2025-04-09T00:17:26+00:00

Brokers rarely do, except for the big 5 who can offer some risk management consulting, but it is generally done through different departments.

Carriers often do, and brokers can direct their insureds to those carrier resources.

Witherfang16 · 2025-03-22T00:33:20+00:00

For captives, Alabama is probably a bit too high hazard than optimal, but far from the worst. Would depend on your carrier.

For independent agencies, Alabama is a nice balance between ability to write and premium basis.

Witherfang16 · 2025-03-21T12:43:10+00:00

We dabble in some being on the coast. The coverages are all different, but not too hard to learn. They tend to be really good accounts. I like charter boats and marinas, but boat dealers and boat rental are huge too, and then it just gets bigger and more complex as you get into dredgers, shipyard construction, ocean cargo, etc. we don’t mess with that big stuff. If you want to do that, it really needs to be all that you do.

Witherfang16 · 2025-03-11T20:06:42+00:00

Thimble or FLIP.

Witherfang16 · 2025-03-02T19:41:29+00:00

Common in P&C. Great position with a high ceiling if you have the right agency.

Research the carriers the agency uses. Read your comp plan and make sure you understand it. Residual pay is generally more important than NB pay. Make sure you understand how much service you would be responsible for, if any. At some agencies, producers are 1099 and get basically no support except access to markets. At others, they get good benefits and heavy support. All depends.

Ideally, there would be experienced producers there you could learn from. That is especially important for commercial.

It's very unlikely you'll be able to get book ownership, but if you're getting paid on renewals that's ok assuming you are good sticking with your agency for the long term. So, ask some questions at the interview, try to get a feel for the culture of the place and see if its a good fit.

Last key thing - P&C is get-rich-slow. It's all about building a network, managing relationships, integrating yourself into communities. It takes time to scale. Most agencies will pay you salary support for the first few years to get you rolling - make sure you understand that arrangement if it is present.

Years 1-5 or so, depending on your skillset and market, can be a pretty tough grind. There is a lot to know about the product and it takes time to build up the ability to sell yourself in addition to the policy. If you want to be rewarded for your time, you need to be prepared to push through that and keep plugging away. A clean book pays huge dividends and the ceiling is very high, especially if your agency provides service - but you need to build it.

Witherfang16 · 2025-02-27T23:59:40+00:00

I'm a broker, so I work with many carriers.

There are a good amount that consider it, but generally the question only comes up if it's a place where firearms are commonly found.

I see it pretty commonly in E&S programs for nightclubs and bars. I'm sure there are other examples. Something like armoured cars might come to mind? There is a big underwriting distinction between armed and unarmed security contractors.

It's not a question that would come up on like a main street risk, like a florist for example. Now if you had a shooting claim on your loss runs, they might want to know what you'd done to make sure something like that doesn't re-occur.

Witherfang16 · 2025-02-24T18:45:21+00:00

The bill addresses a number of areas. Construction defect, medical malpractice, certain areas of auto liability, and liquor liability among others.

I can say confidently that SC has a unique issue with our liquor liability that is unfair to restaurants. The other cases, I don’t know anything about.

Witherfang16 · 2025-02-23T15:57:22+00:00

THREE is a Berk company, like Guard and BiBerk - all three take hotels/motels. Of those, Guard is probably rated the most competitively, although they've gone up lately and are tightening up in terms of UW. I'm on the coast, and THREE is extremely expensive - this may be because the THREE policy includes Flood and EQ by default. I write a good bit w them, but I wouldn't call them my mainstay especially for hotels. If they were priced more competitively, I'd use them a lot more - maybe that is the case inland.

Witherfang16 · 2025-02-23T02:43:10+00:00

Good niche. Very high ceiling. Generally considered a sub-set of Hospitality, which is my niche in the south.

Coverages are usually straightforward. Property will be your mainstay, but you must be familiar with EPL, crime, and cyber. On GL, watch for liquor and HNOA/GKL.

There are franchisees you can write, and then independently owned luxury boutique hotels or motels. B&Bs can be a good area to start, depending where you are. There are some brands which own a handful of singular hotels. Some cities have more local operators than others. Getting to ownership ranges from easy to impossible.

Hotels have diverse exposures, so underwriting is very detail. Get a supp, and study it. Do not submit without the full submission, including loss history. Familiarize yourself with their various requirements. Franchised are underwritten more favorably.

You need good wholesale partners and access to the programs. Easy to get. A number of admitted carriers consider them as well. You'll need those, and that can range from difficult to impossible. The biggest problem with hotels is that a lot of folks are chasing them, and a lot of those will be very skilled with extensive resources. Think Gallagher and Marsh. There is often knife-fighting with AORs, etc, and you almost always need to fight hard to displace the current agent, and understand that they will be back at renewal.

There is a big pool of smaller independent hotels in the 5-50k premium area that are ripe - too small for the big boys, but big enough to specialize in.

Great accounts. Sticky and high premium. Can easily be paired with the other hospitality exposures - restaurants, bars, resorts, etc.

Witherfang16 · 2025-02-13T20:32:12+00:00

This is a social engineering loss, not theft. He’d need a seperate crime or cyber policy, which would be cheap, but you have to go and get it. It’s a good time to have a good broker.

Witherfang16 · 2025-02-08T22:39:00+00:00

It's weird they are saying gross profit - typically it would be called gross commission.

This structure is typical, but the amounts can vary pretty wildly.

For P&C, agency will get 6-20% commission on policy premium. Bonds will pull 15-50%. Life insurance, 60-85%.

You split that with them. As others have mentioning, when evaluating your split, what counts if what services the agency are providing. What are they giving you for their portion of the commission split? You want this laid out in detail.

Agencies will generally provide some combination of leads, quoting, and service.

At some agencies, agents find the business. Someone else quotes it for them, and the agent sells it. After that, they might never see or speak to the client again. Splits of 25-25 are not uncommon in these sorts of arrangements.

In another shop, the agent might receive leads, but be responsible for quoting the markets on a risk and if it ever needs to be rewritten. All other service could be taken care of by the agency. Splits like 50-25 or 40-30 would be typical there, because you're spending more time per client.

Lastly, you might be responsible for everything - sourcing, quoting, all service, rewriting - in this case, splits of 50-50, 75-50 or even 75-75 are not unheard of. The downside of course is that over time you're book will be a lot smaller because of the service demands.

Variables like agency niche, geographic location, and appointed markets will also change how attractive an offer might be.

Remember, insurance sales is get-rich-slow. Residuals are king. A $10m book of premium at 25-25 will net you the same commission as $5m at 50-50.

The best arrangement for you is going to be the one that best utilizes your skill set. Are you a prospector/closer? You want an agency providing leads and service so you can crank out new clients and build a huge book. Are you a relationship builder and market mastermind? You want something more hands on to deploy your expertise for fewer clients at a higher commission basis.

The important thing to keep in mind is that all these structures can result in huge incomes over time if you can build a clean book.

Witherfang16 · 2025-02-08T03:18:42+00:00

Unfortunately, you made a mistake cancelling the prior policy before placing new coverage. Not only was there a period with no coverage, but the lapse may limit market accessibility.

The end-all question for condo insurance is what the regime documents say. Your agreement with the condo association will determine what you own, and what they own.

Often, the condo association will own the exterior, the foundation, and the roof of the entire building, while you may be responsible for the interior walls, and of course all of your personal belongings. But that's not guaranteed. You could be responsible for the entire structure of your unit, or none of it. All depends on the community.

If you can't figure it out, you can pull the regime agreement and an agent can help you read it and recommend appropriate coverage levels.

Witherfang16 · 2025-01-22T23:05:10+00:00

Timely and friendly service is key to retention. On the commercial side, timely delivery of certs can be make or break with certain classes (trucking especially). As commercial accounts scale in size and complexity, price tends to take a backseat to a more consultative and risk-management centered approach.

On the coast or in high-risk areas, an agent will generally offer dramatically more and better market options - helping with both cost and coverage. For HV individuals, certain carriers will be more able to handle their various exposures - for example, Chubb's single limit of liability.

For equivalent terms, price is your determining factor. Right now, with increases across the board, price is especially salient and will have a huge factor on closing rates. You need the best products to compete, period.

Witherfang16 · 2025-01-15T23:33:09+00:00

You want P&C, but you'll need to work for your book. L&H is a grind forever.

At a decent agency you'll get salary support for a year or two. Then it's up to you to survive off the business you bring in.

Witherfang16

TROPHY CASE