Thread regarding Allstate Corp. layoffs

I left Allstate and went to one of the well known "online" companies to save some money and it has been a not great experience at all. There are questions I would ask my agent and I would get an answer right away, anytime I had questions with that "online" company it took multiple calls to get an answer.

I have since left the well known "online" company and ended up going to State Farm, it was about the same as Allstate but the guy lives a few doors down from me.

OP, it is much more complicated than you think and there are reasons and value in captive agents. Customers will get better service from an captive agent on average in a claim because they know (70%) how to advocate. IAs typically have shallow relationships with reps and the carriers have very little loyalty to agents as there are something like 100k IAs (next one up). They also couldn’t possibly know all the ins and outs of every single carrier. Why not get rid of the agents? EA business is sticker business that on average earns more “indicated rate”. Direct business just sucks (doesn’t earn indicated rate due to tenure and can tend to have more frequency of losses). IA business is actually really good from a loss ratio stand point but tends to run with very little rate pressure. From a coat stand point…take out new agent programs and see what program cost the most? (Hint it isn’t captive agents). Which distribution channel makes the most money with the greatest flexibility from a rate perspective? Remember, nationwide did it and there is a reason why Allstate is scared to follow. Not advocating for only captive agents but it isn’t as cut/dry as you think. Your statement lacks a lot of prospective….

Because Allstate can't do direct with their antiquated systems/processes and horrible UX. They don't know what they're doing in the IA space. They may think they can compete in those spaces, and may tell themselves they can, but they're deluded.

(Captive) agents add very little value to customers, and it's a small percentage of people who want the cookie cutter coverage they provide. The reality is that consumers need an intermediary between themselves and the product, not because proper coverage is complicated but because the company's systems are difficult to navigate. That's why Allstate is going down the drain like Sears.

Why do we have Agents? Duh! Consumers want agents. Clients want an advocate that represents them. The 2 cars and the house client, want help picking coverage. When a client has a claim they want local representation assisting them through the process.

Allstate is a company that is bound by a ton of red tape. Get rid of the red tape and I will agree their is no need for agents. Good luck getting rid of the red tape!

Duh! Why do we still have agents? Because consumers want them!

Claims and tech support is the nightmare at allstate they too should get tossed into Indian ocean

Dear OP-
When is your job being outsourced to Pune?

Agents are a waste. 95 percent of the customers never wanted one but needed one to close on the policy. They have never spoken to their agent since who continues to make commission annually and provide no value to them with those costs passed on as premium

As a 35 year agent I can honestly attest to the fact that there is an ongoing process to reduce agent numbers...quotas for new business auto policies; restrictions on allowing existing agents to sell their book of business to existing or new agency owners; encouraging customers to be self-serving via the Allstate app, photo estimates for claims, paying premiums on-line, endorsements on-line , quoting and buying policies on-line, etc, etc. It is quite obvious TW wants to get rid of the EXPENSE of agents to improve the bottom line to Wall Street.

I work ASIC so chat with agents daily. 30% of agents are loke you say and bad, but most agents I'd say70% of agents are good agents. It's just that bottom 30% that make agents look bad

agents are independent contractors fool Allstate cant lay them off