A Day In the Life of a Personal Insurance Account Manager

There are over 13,077 Insurance Account Representatives currently employed in the United States.

Considering increasing that statistic? If you’re contemplating a career as a personal lines insurance account manager, you probably want to know what the job entails before just diving in.

Well lucky for you, we have some expertise in that area. At Berry Insurance, we have three personal lines account managers: John, Shelly, and Heather. And we asked them to let us in on all the tasks they work on day to day.

We may have indicated in the title that this would be “a day in the life of an account manager.” More realistically, it’s really “the life of an account manager” since their tasks and responsibilities vary so much from day to day. 

So in this article, we’ll let you in on their secrets and outline some of the tasks that come up for them in their roles. Keep in mind, this article is specific to Berry Insurance. While personal insurance account manager jobs are probably very similar at other companies, some agencies may handle the role differently than others. 

Quoting new business:

One of our account managers’ favorite parts of their job is meeting new people and finding out if we are a right fit for them, and they are a right fit for us!

After prospects call in or contact us online our insurance agents talk to them on the phone to evaluate their needs. Depending on the type of insurance they’re looking for the agents ask a bunch of questions related to contact information, property information, claims history, unique exposures and more.

Often, they also ask about their other types of personal insurance. When an agent has a holistic view of all of someone’s insurance policies, they are able to identify coverage gaps or redundancies, make life simpler for the client, or even save them money!

To learn more about how the personal insurance quoting process works: check out this article: What Information do I Need For a MA Homeowners Insurance Quote?

If these prospects decide they want to move forward with us and become clients, there are a few more steps the insurance agents need to take to finalize the business.

First, they process the new applications through the insurance carrier they selected with the prospect. Once approved, the agent prepares a cancellation form and sends it over to the client’s previous agent, who cancels the former policy. 

Updating policies:

But once new business is established, our insurance agents do not just forget about it. A very important part of being an account manager is … you guessed it: managing the accounts they have.

Part of this is making sure the clients’ policies are keeping up with any changes in their lives.

For example, if clients inform our agents they purchased a new car, the agents need to update the policy by getting paperwork from the dealer, and sending the paperwork over to the carrier to prepare a new insurance binder.

If a client is refinancing, their agent needs to work with the carrier to prepare a binder to send to the banks.

But these are only a couple examples of updates agents may need to make to clients’ policies. Life is full of change, so keeping insurance policies up to date is a big part of the job.

Another way our agents do this is by performing annual reviews. Before each policy comes up for renewal each year, our insurance agents reach out to the policyholders to check to make sure they haven’t had any insurance-altering life changes and that their policies are still meeting their needs. 

For more information about what that may look like, read this article: Why You Should Review Your Personal Insurance Annually.

Managing payments:

So far, we’ve talked a lot about issuing and managing personal insurance policies. But those insurance policies? They all cost money.

So it is also the job of an insurance agency to collect and manage some of those payments.

Sometimes this looks like our account managers collecting checks or card payments from clients. Other times it may look like reaching out to insurance companies to ask for waived late fees because the mail was slow. Or, sometimes agents need to reach out to clients looking for their payments for policies that are about to cancel for non-payment.

As you can read more about in this article: How Can I Pay for my Insurance Policy?, there are several ways people can pay for their insurance policies. So dealing with payments is more of a notable part of an insurance agents’ job than you may think.

Managing claims:

Claims definitely aren’t our agents’ favorite part of the job, but they are certainly an important one.

While our agents never want claims to happen, occasionally they do. And when that happens, it’s our agents’ jobs to be responsive, empathetic, and proactive. It’s one of their biggest times to shine!

Whether it be an auto, home, condo, renters, life, pet, or other type of insurance claim, if our clients call to file a claim, there are several steps our agents need to take to facilitate the claims process. 

When made aware of a situation, our agents will reach out to the client’s carrier to file the claim. Usually they will have to go back and forth with the client, carriers, and adjusters to be an advocate and help move the claims process forward until it is resolved.

Depending on the type of insurance claim, each process looks a little different. But the most common types of claims we usually see are auto and home insurance. 

The following two articles explain how these processes go in more detail:

What Happens After a Car Accident? (MA Auto Insurance Claims Process & Timelines)

Everything You Need to Know About Filing a Home Insurance Claim

Answering insurance questions:

I don’t think it’s a controversial statement to say insurance is confusing. Even our insurance agents often come across new scenarios they have to dive into and figure out (yup, that’s part of the job too). 

So it should be no surprise that answering a litany of insurance questions is part of an insurance agent’s job.

Some of these include questions about their coverages and policies, concerns about bills, questions regarding letters they receive from lien holders and banks, questions regarding cancellation notices, and so much more.

And agents have to answer them all. 

Depending on the insurance agency, there may be different approaches to doing this.

For example, at Berry Insurance, we have an entire educational strategy. We have a marketing team dedicated to creating educational articles and videos which our agents can find in a content library to share with clients and prospects asking those questions.

So in a way, insurance agents are also educators – and you know what they say … educators are superheroes!

Insurance agents: peace-of-mind protectors (and multitaskers)

Insurance agents are a really important part of society. After all, insurance is the safety net that protects people from any emergencies or accidents they may encounter. So the people who issue and maintain these insurance policies are responsible for creating peace of mind for their clients.

And as you can see from the information above, it can definitely be a busy job. But, believe it or not, the duties I mentioned aren’t even all the tasks within a personal insurance account manager’s job description. 

Insurance agents are multi-taskers, and often find themselves jumping into new projects, taking on new responsibilities, and running into situations they’ve never encountered before. 

Not to mention, the insurance industry is always changing. That means insurance agents need to always pursue continuing education and keep up to date on the latest trends.

There’s definitely a lot that goes on as an insurance agent – but our agents say that’s what makes their jobs fun and exciting!

What do you think? Does it sound fun and exciting to you too?

Becoming a personal insurance account manager can be a great career path to explore, but it definitely isn’t for everyone. 

You’ll  want to be sure the career is right for your skills and interests. So if you want to find out if you have the right assets to make a good insurance account manager, check out this article: 7 Qualities You Need to be a Successful Insurance Account Manager.

And if you're interested in learning about an account manager role with Berry Insurance, head on over to our career page.