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 Oklahoma UFAA Contacts:    

UFAA Chapter 15 serving Eastern Oklahoma   

President- Glenn Johnson 918/252-0561  

UFAA Chapter 12 serving Central-Western Oklahoma:   

President- Tony Reese 580/355-1335 - Lawton  

United Farmers Agents Assn. National Office 800-275-8668
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Letters to the Editor  

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Farmers COO: Company's Eastward Push Won't Include Florida

As Farmers moves ahead with an East Coast expansion, Florida's mainstream property market won't be a factor in that overall equation. Farmers President and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Dailey said the company believes it just wouldn't be a wise use of capital. He pointed out other insurers have had trouble maintaining surplus even without hurricanes affecting Florida's marketplace. "It's just not an environment that we would want to expose our capital to," Dailey said. "It's really from a property perspective. We're not looking to expand our exposure there." Farmers sells automobile insurance in the Sunshine State through its 21st Century brand while independent producers sell specialty products under the Foremost brand. Dailey said Farmers will continue its market presence in the mobile home and specialty home and auto segments through those two companies. The Los Angeles -based insurer recently began selling coverage in Pennsylvania , marking its 30th state. New Jersey , Maryland , Georgia and New York are among the markets that Dailey and Farmers are viewing in the short term. The expansion strategy will play out over the first half of the decade. "When we think about the lead generation that comes from 21st Century, and half of the insurance population being east of the Mississippi River, there's a huge opportunity for us in expanding east," Dailey said. "It's an opportunity that's been staring at us for a while." Dailey, who will succeed Farmers Chief Executive Officer Robert Woudstra at year end, said Farmers had tried a similar expansion several years ago. But it did so through its independent agent channel, a move he described as difficult because it limited control from the company's end. "We came to the conclusion that the right way to expand was to bring our distribution channel to the East," Dailey said. An AgencyPoint operation has been established in Pennsylvania to recruit, train and develop agents. So far there are separate bases of 50 agents operating in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh .

"We think we can probably add close to 100 agents, per AgencyPoint a year," Dailey said. "And if that model is successful, as we expect it to be, we'll continue to expand along the East Coast ." Farmers is the ninth-largest property casualty writer in the United States for 2010, according to BestLink, which provides online access to A.M. Best's database of insurance information. That ranking is based on net premiums written of $14.1 billion , an increase of 11% from a year earlier. Earlier this month Farmers Group Inc. Reported its business operating profit had declined 14% to $729 million in the first half of 2011. Dailey said reduced operating profit was due to natural catastrophe claims and changes in a quota share arrangement with Zurich , which owns Farmers Group Inc. As surplus grew to support the business, an existing 35% quota share arrangement was reduced to 12% in 2011. Farmers Re's business operating profit decreased to $55 million as a result of that quota share change and increased weather-related losses in the second quarter.

When to Open a Another Location

If you build it, will they come? Here are the criteria you should meet if you're considering opening a second location.

Why It Might Be Time for a Virtual Assistant                     

Small-business owners are often caught between a rock and hard place when it comes to adding employees. You've got more work than you can handle, but can you really afford to hire another person?

Temp employees used to be the go-to solution, but virtual assistants have risen in popularity. A virtual assistant (VA) is a person - or sometimes a technology  - contracted through a third-party company to help you get your work done.

Steven Aldrich is chief executive of Outright, a company that allows small-business owners to "outsource" their accounting needs using its cloud-based technology. He  offers five reasons why it might be time for you to take on a VA.

You have better things to do.

As the owner of the business, do you really have time to filter and delete spam emails? How about perform hours of tedious data entry into your accounting ledger? Find the five perfect keywords for your blog post? Of course you don't. But a virtual assistant is happy to do it, freeing you up for other tasks.

Your virtual assistant knows more than you do.

Your business is running a business, not keeping up with the cutting edge of administrative technology. Maybe you're laboring over an antiquated accounting ledger or sending drafts of Word documents back and forth with your team. Your VA will know how to streamline and automate these tedious business tasks, so let him do what he does best: managing administrative tasks as his 24/7 occupation, while you get back to the business of running your business.

Virtual assistants save you time and money.

A recent survey from Outright.com showed that business owners could save five hours per month on bookkeeping simply by outsourcing it. Those are hours you could be billing clients, dreaming up a new product or service, or developing a marketing plan. If you properly utilize a virtual assistant, you'll likely discover you are actually making more money even when paying someone to outsource tedious tasks.

A virtual assistant knows the right people.

The right virtual assistant, one who has experience working in your industry, can actually expand your network. For example, ask people in your industry for VA recommendations and you'll often find that the same few names crop up again and again.

A virtual assistant takes care of her own paperwork  -  a VA will even save you time and money on hiring and paperwork, because they work as contractors rather than employees. And her "virtual" status ensures that she takes care of her own insurance, tax payments and office equipment, meaning she can hit the ground running for you from day one.

-How One Virtual Assistant Built Her Business Using Twitter -How You Know It's Time to -Hire Learning to Delegate: Letting Go So You Can Grow

Is Now the Time to Re-Brand Your Company's Message?  

By Dave Thomas on September 1, 2011

As you give consideration to possibly re-working your brand, keep in mind that a change involves a number of facets, many of which will cost your company money.

Most importantly, is it worth losing the time, effort and recognition that went into defining your brand in the first place? Simply put, many customers get used to a brand that they can identify with, so are you going to ruffle some feathers by changing what they already know? More  

The Foremost Auto program also now features the following upgrades:

• A continuous insurance discount based on length of time an insured was with their most recent insurer. This discount is automatically verified through a third party report and requires no follow-up.
• Accident forgiveness for accidents with Foremost where the total payout is less than $500.
• The option to "go paperless"when the customer agrees to receive the policy and billing documents via a valid email address.
• Online enhancements including an improved web rater, new vehicle and ownership questions to help get more accurate quotes and rates, enhanced help text on AIproducers.com, and VIN pre-fill at the beginning of the quoting process.

Click on this link to AIproducers.com and discover if your (Farmers Agent assigned) Foremost logon will work. This tell us about it in poll 2 below.

Hurricane Irene And The $5,000 Gap In Your Disaster Insurance

Note: in coastal states and beach fronts, H/O deductibles range from 1 to 5%  Sep 06, 2011 12:57 PM CDTBy WFSB Staff

Gov. Dannel  Malloy and Insurance Commissioner Thomas B. Leonardi said Tuesday that several more insurance companies will waive the higher cost hurricane deductible for coastal property owners in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene.

Malloy said his administration has been working closely with insurers that write homeowner's policies in Connecticut to address the issue. Commissioner Leonardi said the companies that have either waived the hurricane deductibles or have coastal policies in which their triggers have not been met represent about 80 percent of homeowners' insurance market in the state.

Companies that have waived the hurricane deductible:

· ACE, Allstate,· Bunker Hill· Connecticut FAIR Plan· Farm Family· Farmers Insurance· Fidelity National· Fireman's Fund· Hartford· Liberty Mutual· MetLife· MiddleOak· New London County Mutual (NLC)· Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE)· Quincy Mutual Fire Insurance Company· Safeco· Tower· Travelers· Utica National· Utica First· Universal North America· Vermont Mutual

Companies not applying the hurricane deductibles because triggers were not met:

· Chubb· Factory Mutual· Hanover· Kemper· Nationwide· Peerless

Allstate reports $735M in losses due to Irene, other disasters

And, Farmers just can't wait to expand to the East Coast. What are they thinking?  -ed 

Farmers Insurance® Celebrates Grand Opening of New Woodland Hills, CA Facility August 30, 2011

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Farmers Insurance Chief Executive Officer Robert Woudstra and President and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Dailey will welcome Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis P. Zine, Farmers agents, executives, and employees to the "Grand Opening" of the new Farmers Insurance Woodland Hills facility.

"Farmers would like to thank Mayor Villaraigosa and Councilman Zine who have helped Farmers with this important move to Woodland Hills.  Farmers was founded in Los Angeles 83 years ago, and still occupies its headquarters office in the mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles.  We are proud that through the years, Farmers has grown to be the third-largest insurer of personal lines auto and homeowners insurance in the United States.  We have over 900 employees now in the facility, and 400 more will move there next year," noted Robert Woudstra, Farmers CEO.  "This new facility is a continuing commitment to our employees in California."

"The opening of Farmers' new facility demonstrates our ongoing commitment to creating and retaining hundreds of good paying jobs in Los Angeles," Mayor Villaraigosa said. "During these tough economic times, we are proud that LA's very own Farmers Insurance has chosen to continue investing in Los Angeles and its workforce."

"I congratulate and welcome Farmers Insurance to Woodland Hills," noted Councilman Dennis P. Zine. "Farmers presence and growth in Los Angeles is significant, and we truly appreciate the dedication of the more than 2,000 local Farmers agents, district managers and employees who work in Los Angeles and provide quality service to nearly one million policies in the Los Angeles area. Growing jobs in Warner Center is a vital part of keeping Los Angeles a vibrant city and I am proud to facilitate bringing good-paying, high-quality jobs to the San Fernando Valley."

"Our goal was a first class facility that our employees and the community would be proud of.  At the same time we wanted a facility that was environmentally friendly.  We accomplished our goal," said David Travers, executive vice president of Operations. "The types of jobs in the facility include professional level positions supporting the Farmers Business Insurance corporate office, information technology and claims handling."

Farmers Insurance celebrates two new buildings on campus south of Grand Rapids   

Grand Rapids Press

September 13, 2011, 4:46 PM

No more sharing desks. No more parking on the grass.

No more employees tucked into temporary basement quarters.

That's one upshot of the $84.4 million buildings completed by Farmers Insurance earlier this year at its 600-acre campus in Caledonia, MI.

Company officials, local politicians and a slew of Farmers employees gathered outside the most recently completed building Tuesday to hold an official grand opening, including the ceremonial ribbon cutting.

It also provided hometown boy and outgoing CEO Bob Woudstra an opportunity to reflect on the company's recent accomplishments, which include a commitment to hire 1,600 people locally in the four or five years. More than 500 already have been hired.