Becoming A Merchants' Agent

Merchants Insurance Group, a regional property and casualty insurance carrier, regularly appoints new independent agents throughout our operating territories. We seek business partners that are professional, ethical and dedicated to success through uncompromising service to their customers.

Merchants offers a market for standard and preferred risks through our companies: Merchants Mutual Insurance Company (Mutual) and Merchants Preferred Insurance Company (Preferred). The companies are marketed together, and the appointed agents generally represent both. The A.M. Best Company has rated these companies as “A-.”

Merchants’ corporate headquarters is located in Buffalo, New York. We operate regional offices in Albany, Buffalo, and Hauppauge (Long Island), New York; Manchester, New Hampshire; Moorestown, New Jersey; and Columbus, Ohio.

Merchants Insurance Group is licensed to write business in 13 states and actively writes in: Massachusetts • Michigan • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New York • Ohio • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • Vermont.

Merchants Insurance Group values the relationships we have established with our independent agency partners. Our Agent Value Proposition sets forth this commitment.

Types of Agencies We Target

For those agents interested in seeking a business relationship with Merchants, the following outline briefly describes the type of agency that is traditionally successful with Merchants:

Agency Volume

We have found great success with agents in the $5 million to $20 million range; however, we have a number of successful agents who fall outside this range. We also find multi-location agencies with higher agency volume ($25 million or greater) highly desirable.

Agency Personnel

We seek a well-staffed (two or more licensed producers and a support staff) agency that exemplifies professionalism in the insurance industry.

Target Market

We target agents who specialize in the types of products we offer, commercial lines and personal lines.

Growth Potential

We seek agents who are prepared to do business immediately. We work with agents to develop mutually beneficial success plans with specific growth objectives.

Marketing

Successful Merchants' agents have an active marketing strategy. Before appointing a new agent we examine the agency’s marketing plans and look for such things as direct mail programs, telemarketing, cross-sales strategies, etc.

Secure Business

Our agents are financially secure. We look for agents with a long-term business plan and a solid strategy for the perpetuation of the agency.

What Merchants Offers to Our Agency Partners

Technology

We continuously implement new features to make doing business with us faster and easier than ever. Merchants Insurance Group is committed to our automation and online capabilities.

Commercial Gateway

The Commercial Gateway is the introduction to our Commercial Lines insurance products. All Merchants’ agency personnel can access this password-protected area of our website 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Agents will find everything they need to conduct business with us, including:

The Interactive Marketing Guide, an interactive tool to help you assess risk.
The Policy Inquiry feature for many of our commercial products, including Merchants Advantage Plus® Businessowners, Contractors Coverall Plus, and Commercial Automobile. Merchants’ agents are able to obtain current information about their policies, including status of policy; policy history, including renewals, coverages and discounts; changes and cancellations; policy credits and surcharges; policy additional insured information; policy billing details; and policy claims.
Policy Quote and Issue, an easy and fast tool to help you obtain real-time policy information for your clients, including “quick quoting” with the entry of rating information only; a professional letter with an overview of coverages selected and available in an easy to read format that can be presented to policyholders; detailed agents’ rating worksheets and coverage information; and options to print or e-mail client proposals and agent’s worksheets; plus more!

Personal Gateway

The Personal Gateway is the introduction to our Personal Lines insurance products. All Merchants’ agency personnel can access this password-protected area of our website 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Agents will find everything they need to conduct business with us, including:

The Policy Inquiry feature for many of our Personal products, including Personal Automobile and Home Owners. Merchants’ agents are able to obtain current information about their policies, including status of policy; policy history, including renewals, coverages and discounts; changes and cancellations; policy credits and surcharges; policy additional insured information; policy billing details; and policy claims.
Policy Quote and Issue, an easy and fast tool to help you obtain real-time policy information for your clients, including “quick quoting” with the entry of rating information only; a professional letter with an overview of coverages selected and available in an easy to read format that can be presented to policyholders; detailed agents’ rating worksheets and coverage information; and options to print or e-mail client proposals and agent’s worksheets; plus more!

Manuals

All of our product manuals, for Commercial and Personal Lines, are available on our website for agent reference. These manuals are updated regularly as the products are changed.

Billing

In the Billing section of our site, agents are able to access a policyholder’s current invoice, payment details and payment schedule. Agents can also make e-payments on behalf of policyholders that pay them directly. In addition, agents can make payments by telephone for the policyholder. This feature allows our agents to telephone a payment for those policyholders who bring a check or cash to the agent’s office for either payment of a bill or a cancellation notice.

Claims

We provide our agents with claims inquiry, first notice of loss, and loss run reports in our password-protected Gateway area of our website. Claims can be reported to Merchants via telephone or fax. We can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-952-5246 during our regular business hours which are from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday. We also offer a toll-free “After-Hours Emergency Claims Service” at 1-888-644-6680, which allows policyholders to speak with an experienced claims representative around the clock. Our Claims Department emphasizes timely investigation of claims, settlement of valid claims for equitable amounts, the establishment of adequate reserves for reported but unsettled claims, and control of external claims adjustment costs, particularly legal expenses.

Merchants Insurance Group has three Claims operations staffed with highly experienced claims professionals to serve our agents and policyholders. Merchants also staffs in-house Special Investigators who work closely with the Claims Department to identify and investigate insurance fraud.

If you are interested in forming a partnership with a dynamic, service-oriented insurance carrier, please contact our Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Daniel J. Bierbrauer Jr. at dbierbrauer@merchantsgroup.com.