A new alliance between The Hartford Financial Services Group and Progressive aims to give independent insurance agents a broader range of products to sell to community banks.
The partnership is expected to help both companies remain competitive in a market where several of their competitors, such as Travelers, are offering comprehensive business insurance packages.
“Each party needed the other to get more of a truly complete product offering,” said Wes Gardner, the director of middle market industry products at The Hartford.
Progressive currently offers professional liability and bond products to more than 1,700 community banks.
Broader Coverage
A list of Progressive products includes bankers professional, directors and officers, employment practices, trust and internet banking liability.
The Hartford offers banks industry-tailored property and casualty insurance, including bank-specific coverage for mortgage portfolios and foreclosed properties as well as standard-line coverage for workers’ compensation, property and general liability.
Under the new program, agents for each insurer will be able to offer the insurance lines underwritten by the other insurer. For example, if an agent for Progressive sells a package offered by The Hartford, all the necessary information would be sent to The Hartford, whose underwriters would then provide the quote.
“We don’t offer property and casualty insurance products to our banks, so we were looking for a solution,” said Mike Read, a spokesperson for Progressive. “We felt like this alliance with The Hartford, a well-respected company, gave us the best opportunity to fix that.”
The new alliance should also provide convenience to customers, allowing banks to get all of their business insurance from a single source, officials said.
“Clients prefer to deal with insurers that have professionals in place that deal with both professional liability as well as property and casualty insurance,” Gardner said.
The Hartford also announced its wholly-owned subsidiary, the Hartford Technology Services Co., has partnered with Business Management Group to offer Web-based solutions that include Web analytics and search engine optimization.
