Quite a guy.

Millions of Americans rely upon him. They trust his judgment. They know his services will protect their financial well-being.

In good times and bad, they call upon him. And especially when disaster strikes do they urgently seek his assistance, which they get without equivocation or delay.

He is a big and important part of the American scene. Together with the companies he represents, he plays a vital and indispensable role in our businesses, professions, industries, private lives — and in the very economic security of our nation.

Who is this person? A superman? Not so.

He’s an average "Joe," is this insurance agent, but with a few important differences. Whether he conducts his business from an oilcloth-covered table of a humble home in the most remote hamlet or across gleaming mahogany in a sparkling office of the biggest city, he’s a dedicated guy. He’s in business for himself and proud of the services his profession can – and does – render. There are more than 100,000 of him all across the land.

But now, a quick refresher course:

When a person buys insurance, the local, independent, professional insurance agent makes certain that the policy is the best possible one to suit the conditions at band. In that respect, some insurances are different.

The independent, local agent is not the employee of any one insurance company; he represents a number of different companies. He has the great advantage of selection – he can select company and policy and recommend that which best fits the client’s needs and pocketbook. To him, the "best policies at the most favorable rates" are important watch words. But rather than simply "sell" insurance, he is concerned with the protection of his clients against loss.

The good, independent local agent is on call 24 hours a day throughout the life of a person’s policy, for auto accidents, fires, thefts and other disasters have a habit of occurring around the clock.

Too, the loyal, independent local agent lives up to his trust of informing clients on changing property values, on new and better forms of insurance, and on ways to stretch insurance dollars. He’s an advisor and friend worth having.

Perhaps you are already aware of these points. But if you yourself are an insurance agent, do you check on yourself now and then, just to see if you’re living up to the fine traditions of your profession? And do you know of your rich heritage?

While insurance has its roots in the ancient world, the development of insurance forms, as we now know them, probably began in the early fourteenth century when the selling of insurance by agents may have been initiated.

In America, the first reference to agencies took place in 1798. That reference occurred when the Board of Directors of an insurance company in Philadelphia voted "that it is not expedient to have an agent at Charleston, authorized to take risks against fire." That makes the American Agency System – to which Fireman’s Fund heartily subscribes – at least 165 years old.

The National Association of Insurance Agents, one of the ten largest trade associations in the country, is 67 years old. It was in 1896 that its founders, meeting at the Great Northern Hotel in Chicago, organized their body. Those organizers came from such widely scattered cities as Denver, St. Louis, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Paul, Duluth, Toledo and Louisville.

Since its formation, the National Association of Insurance Agents has held annual meetings in major cities all across the nation. It is now made up of approximately 35,000 member insurance agencies representing over 100,000 independent agents in all of our 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.

Fireman’s Fund’s alliance with the American Agency System is detailed in a forthcoming Doubleday history of the Company, "Still Flying and Nailed to the Mast," a history of the Company by William Bronson, a volume every insurance man should own. But again to turn back the clock:

For the first two years of its 100-year existence, Fireman’s Fund insured San Francisco property exclusively, without the use of agents, according to Mr. Bronson. But in 1865, President D. J. Staples cautiously set about appointing agents: First, one in Sacramento, California, then another in Stockton, Calif., and then a third in Folsom, Calif. Results were almost immediate. In 1868, Mr. Staples set up a general agency in New York under the partnership of Messrs. Skeels, Bowers & Boughton to handle all the states east of the Rockies.

Later he hired George Dornin to sow the Fireman’s Fund seed widely. By the end of the year the company was doing business in every town of consequence from New York to the Frontier. Premium income doubled in only three years, between 1868 and 1871. The agents were proving diligent and of high integrity.

This integrity is reflected today in the announced purpose of the National Association: "To support right principles and oppose bad practices in the business."

In part, a member’s pledge to the public is: "I will strive to render the full measure of service that should be expected from an intelligent, well-informed insurance man. Anything short of this would be a violation of the trust imposed in me."

What about the insurance broker? Unlike the agent, the broker is not the direct representative of any particular company, nor is he under contract to any. He is an independent salesman, who selects for his client insurance coverages from whatever company best fills the client’s needs. Like the agent, the broker may operate as an individual, although some of the very largest insurance sales offices are broker
age firms which operate nationwide and employ hundreds of people.

A broker’s routine activities are similar to an agent’s except that he does not write the policies himself, but orders them. When they are written, he delivers them to his clients, either personally or by mail. Like the agent, he is responsible for collecting the premiums when they fall due.

The broker, also, must be a salesman, businessman, psychologist, student and friend, and he should be well informed about insurance, for his service depends upon an accurate knowledge of the fine shades of difference between the coverage offered by many companies.

All too often we in the insurance business take the local producer – the agent or broker – for granted. Certainly such should not be the ease. The producer is the very life’s blood of the industry; he is a man of necessarily keen perception and good judgment, a hard worker, an important cog in the nation’s system of free enterprise.

Can there be any doubt as to why Fireman’s Fund places such great store in, and dependence upon, the American Agency System and the brokers?

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