Ways to Purchase Insurance: Captive vs. Broker
Purchase Option Number One: Online by yourself
Pros:
- Easy
- Quick to complete
Cons:
- You should never be your own agent!
- Could miss major coverages come claim time
Purchase Option Number Two: a Captive Agent
Pros:
- Big, name brands that you’ve heard of before
- Name brand recognition
- Easy to find, located on main roads and have advertisements all over the place
Cons:
- Only able to quote and sell from one major insurance company
- Only have one option to provide you
- If your rates change and you need to leave the agency you’ve also lost the relationship you’ve built with that agent
- Sometimes will sacrifice small coverages that pay off in the long run to get you a lower price up front
- Sometimes captive agents are tougher to get ahold of, especially during claim time
- Captive agents tend to work only 9-5 hours, aren’t available 24/7
Purchase Option Number Three: an Independent Agent
Pros:
- Number one motivation is to protect customers
- Can quote and sell many different insurance options from multiple companies all at once
- Don’t have to lose that agent/client relationship if your coverage needs change over time and you need a new plan
- Always available during the claims process
- We want to be your one stop shop for insurance! You might need three different companies for life, auto, or home insurance, and you could just have one agent
- Licensed to sell from companies that have been around for 100+ years
Cons:
- We can be harder to find, don’t have as much money as the captive agents to spend on ads and marketing (so less junk mail for you!)