Insurance Agent Cover Letter Examples
An agency owner reading an application is running a profit and loss calculation. Will this person write business, will the business stay, and will it be profitable enough that the carriers keep paying contingent commission on it.
Almost no insurance cover letter addresses the third question, which is why the one that does stands out. The example below is written by a multi-line agent in an independent agency. Every name, employer and figure in it is invented.
And as with advisors, there is a portability trap here — the difference being that in insurance the agency usually owns the book outright, which a surprising number of agents have never checked.
Insurance agent cover letter example
A multi-line producer applying to another independent agency. Fictional throughout.
Delphine Marchetti-Oyelaran
Insurance Agent · P&C and Life and Health Licensed · CIC
Boulder, CO · (555) 664-2277 · [email protected]
Greeting
Dear Mr. Ferrante-Adeyemi,
Letter
I am writing about the producer position at your agency. I hold Colorado property and casualty and life and health licences, both current, and the Certified Insurance Counselor designation. I have spent five years in independent agency practice, the last four as a producer.
I currently handle $2.4M in written premium across 640 households and 1,480 policies, at 2.3 policies per household. Retention has run 91% over three years against an agency average of 84%, which comes from a pre-renewal review call on every account rather than anything clever. Last year I wrote $410,000 in new premium, 68% of it from client and centre-of-influence referrals rather than agency leads.
The number I would actually ask you to weigh is the loss ratio. My commercial book has held a three-year loss ratio of 46%, inside the carrier profit-sharing threshold in each of those years. I have grown commercial from 12% to 27% of book premium over three years by concentrating on contractors and light manufacturing, and I would rather grow it slowly and keep the contingency than write everything that walks in.
On the book: it belongs to my current agency and I am subject to a non-piracy agreement, so none of it moves and I am not suggesting otherwise. What moves is the referral network and the commercial appetite. I would like to understand which carriers you are appointed with before we talk further, since that decides what I could write.
Loss ratio is offered as the headline number, and book ownership is stated plainly — see below.
Lines, licences and designations, in that order
Property and casualty and life and health are separate licences, and personal lines, commercial lines, benefits and surplus lines are distinct practices within them. Say which you hold and in which states, and say which you actually write.
Holding a licence and producing in that line are different claims. An agent with a life licence who has written six policies in three years should not present as multi-line, because the first conversation with a producer manager will establish it.
Designations — CIC, CPCU, CISR, AAI, ARM — are verifiable and signal real study. Name them in full with the awarding body. They matter more in commercial lines, where the technical gap between agents is wide and visible.
General information about how agencies typically hire, not licensing advice. Requirements are set by each state department of insurance.
Captive and independent agencies are different businesses
A captive agent represents one carrier, sells its appetite and its pricing, and usually receives leads and brand support. An independent agent represents several, places risks by appetite, and lives or dies on carrier relationships and market access.
Moving from captive to independent, the honest concern is whether you can market a risk rather than quote it. Naming what you know about appetite, submission quality and working with underwriters is the way to answer it, and admitting the learning curve is better than implying there is none.
Moving the other way, the concern is whether you will accept the constraint of one appetite after choosing among many. Say why the trade is attractive to you — brand, leads, simplicity of the sale — rather than leaving it unexplained.
Who owns the book, and what you may say about it
In most agency employment the agency owns the expirations, and producers are commonly bound by non-piracy or non-solicitation agreements. An agent who implies their accounts will follow them may be describing a contractual breach they have not checked.
The example states it flatly: the book belongs to the current agency, a non-piracy agreement applies, none of it moves. Then it names what does move — a referral network and a commercial appetite — which are genuinely portable and genuinely valuable.
Where you own your book, that is a substantial fact and should be stated with the same clarity, along with whatever ownership arrangement you would be looking for in the new agency. It changes the shape of the whole conversation.
Loss ratio is the number almost nobody writes down
Written premium says what you sold. Loss ratio says whether the carrier was glad you sold it, and contingent or profit-sharing commission — frequently a meaningful share of agency income — depends on it.
A three-year commercial loss ratio inside the profit-sharing threshold is therefore a claim about judgement in risk selection, not just production. It is also rare in an application, because most agents do not think to ask their agency for the figure.
Ask for it before you apply. If it is unflattering, do not include it — but know it, because a producer manager may raise it, and an agent who has never looked at their own loss experience is telling the room something.
Retention needs its mechanism
Retention percentages are easy to state and hard to interpret, because a book of long-tenured personal lines accounts in a soft market retains itself. What distinguishes is the practice behind the number.
The example gives 91% against an agency average of 84% and attributes it to a pre-renewal review call on every account — adding, usefully, that it is not clever. Reviewing every account before renewal is laborious, most agents do not do it, and describing it plainly is more convincing than a claim about relationships.
Where you have survived a hard market or a carrier rate action, say what happened. Remarketing 140 accounts and retaining 121 within the agency during a rate action is a stress-tested number, which is worth more than a calm-market average.
New premium: referral or agency lead?
As with mortgage origination, the source of production decides how much of it travels. Referral and centre-of-influence business reflects a network you built; agency-supplied leads reflect a marketing budget you did not.
Give the split as a percentage, and name the centres of influence where they matter — accountants, attorneys, banks, contractors’ associations, realtors. A commercial producer with two live referral sources in a trade is describing an entry point into a whole class of business.
Cross-sell is the related figure. Policies per household is a direct measure of account rounding, and 2.3 tells an owner more about how you work an account than a paragraph about consultative selling would.
Moving from personal lines into commercial
This is the most common progression in the industry and the most commonly fumbled application. Commercial lines demand exposure analysis, coverage form knowledge, submission preparation and underwriter relationships that personal lines does not develop.
Show the transition rather than asserting it. Growing commercial from 12% to 27% of book premium over three years, concentrated in named classes, is a track record; "seeking to move into commercial lines" is an ambition.
Naming your classes matters. Contractors and light manufacturing is a specific appetite with specific coverage issues, and an agency will know immediately whether their carrier panel supports it — which is a far more productive first conversation than a general expression of interest.
Practical points for an insurance application
- Address the agency principal or producer manager by name; agencies are small businesses.
- List each licence with its state and lines, and each designation with the awarding body.
- Give written premium, household and policy counts, and policies per household.
- Name the agency management system you have used — Applied Epic, AMS360, HawkSoft — because conversions are slow.
- Ask which carriers the agency is appointed with; it decides what you could actually write.
- Keep it to one page. Bring the loss run conversation to the interview.
Frequently asked questions
Licences by state and lines, designations with the awarding body, written premium with household and policy counts, retention with the practice behind it, the source split of new premium, and a loss ratio if it is defensible.
Usually not. In most agency employment the agency owns the expirations and producers are bound by non-piracy or non-solicitation agreements, so an implication that accounts will follow may describe a breach you have not checked.
Because it is what carriers pay contingent commission on. Written premium says what you sold; loss ratio says whether the carrier was glad you sold it, which makes it a claim about risk selection rather than production.
Show a transition already under way rather than an ambition. A commercial share of book premium that grew from 12% to 27% in named classes tells an agency immediately whether their carrier panel supports what you write.