It may come as a surprise, but the home office has 2 people on staff whose sole responsibility is to match Equis’ book of business to over 40 different carriers’ books of business for thousands of independent insurance agents. As you can imagine, this is no easy task! Although we continue to develop automatic data feeds from carriers any time we can, a lot of what we do is still, unfortunately, incredibly manual. At Equis, we run a lean and mean operation so that we can continue to recognize and pay our sales agents their well-deserved monthly bonuses!
That’s where you and your agents come in! I wanted to take a few minutes to go over some of our reporting procedures for new business.
• Equis has a 48-hour deadline for an agent to report new business that has been submitted to a carrier (through his/her Agent Dashboard). If you are unable to do this for any reason, please contact your upline or agency manager and request that they report on your behalf.
• After this initial 48-hour timeframe, the New Business Department will enter any unreported business found on carrier reports. Mined, unreported business is automatically flagged as such within our technology.
• It is important to note that all reported business must list the respective clients’ legal first and last names as well as the correct product placed. Please also ensure that client names are spelled correctly. Any misspelled names or use of “nicknames” result in an unreported business flag as the data cannot be automatically matched and must be manually retrieved.
• Should you become aware that any reported business needs correcting, please do not hesitate to chat with our Agent Services Team via your Agent Dashboard for assistance.
• Unreported business does not factor into monthly bonus calculations, so be SURE you are following these procedures for all of your submitted business!
Now, let’s add some tidbits you may not know about Carrier Resources found on your Agent Dashboard.
• You can obtain non-annuity paper applications, underwriting guides, electronic application links, as well as some additional resources under the Carrier Resources tab.
• Pre-Appointment State (PAS) applications are not housed within Carrier Resources, and must be obtained from your upline. If you’re already contracted with that particular carrier, a PAS application can also be obtained directly from the carrier. Otherwise, you will have to wait for a carrier writing number in order to receive a PAS application directly from the carrier.
• There are no annuity applications housed within Carrier Resources. You must obtain these from your upline or the carrier directly.
• You will find products that require Errors & Omissions (E&O) coverage in Carrier Resources.
• You will be able to identify Advanced Markets/Retirement Solutions products (IULs, annuities, etc.) within Carrier Resources.
As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, our doors are always open. Here we grow!!