Three Insurance Companies Placed in Liquidation in Illinois   and Lumbermens Mutual Casualty is one of them. Does that name sound familiar? Didn't AmFam just buy part of them a short while ago? Interesting??? 5/25/2013

46 Insurers in Fortune 500  Check out what ranking AmFam has as compared to last year!! 5/11/2013

American Family Auto Ins Medpay Class Action Settlement:  Not another class action! Well, the original class incident involves a 13 year old case, but the agreement to settle is new. Read about it here. 4/20/2013

ANOTHER CLASS ACTION FILED AGAINST AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE COMPANY  On February 28, 2013, a class action complaint was filed in US District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division. The suit claims that American Family has violated ERISA laws by treating their independent contractor agents as employees. Plaintiffs Walid Jammal and Dana LaRiche have filed this claim on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated. 3/22/2013  CLICK HERE TO READ AMFAM RESPONSE TO JAMMAL AND LARICHE COMPLAINT.  Posted 6/3/2013

Judge Reduces Nationwide Agent's Jury Award!  An Ohio jury’s award to Nationwide Ex-agent is lowered $10.3 M by judge due to state law caps. 3/1/2013

Class action filed against American Family. “Insurance Company Fleeced Us!”  A Minnesota couple is suing AmFam in a class action for what the couple says are excessive charges on homeowner replacement costs. 2/18/2013

5 Insurers Make List of Top 50 Companies for Executive Women!  Where is American Family? Although improvement has been made in employment for women, it appears AmFam has a long way to go yet, at least among insurance companies. 2/8/2013

The grass is always greener…or so they say...  “SafeAuto trying out sales from storefront” is a recent headline in the Columbus Dispatch. SafeAuto is a direct sales writer, but now they think they need store front sales locations to satisfy their cross-section of customers. Sound familiar? 2/8/2013

AmFam's Purchase of the General - Another Slant:  Evidently there is no intention of allowing AmFam exclusive agents to sell General products. But General products will be sold by other independent agents. Anybody think there won’t be competition here? 1/25/2013

Ohio Jury Smacks Nationwide: Agent Christine Lucarell won $42.8M in a jury decision for damages she suffered as a result of unrealistic production quotas, withholding disbursements from a company loan, cut commissions, etc. which ultimately resulted in her termination. Lucarell lost her home to foreclosure, her car was repossessed, and her credit ruined. Sound familiar?  11/9/2012

This WI newspaper reported that Jared Roeker of Mauston, WI bought an American Family Insurance Agency. Either things have changed at American Family and they are now allowing agencies to be sold, or the Wisconsin newspaper has reported it wrong. Help! Somebody check this out for NAAFA. Click here to read the article.  10/19/2012

American Family to buy The General... Most agents by now know that AmFam is purchasing The General, but do you understand how its products will be sold? Rumor has it that field agents will only be able to sell General’s products through brokerage. That means split commissions and no renewals. Hmmmm!! How do employee agents get paid?  9/26/2012

Evidently Jack Salzwedel, AmFam CEO, is not very popular with his employees. He gets only a 45% approval rating and only 47% of the employees recommend this company to a friend! Read more here at The Glass Door.  9/15/2012

Two American Family Insurance agencies in Bismarck, ND have been burglarized. It seems the state of the economy is having its effect on many.  9/14/2012

Do Insurance Brokers have to Offer the Cheapest Coverage?  Insurance brokers should be cautious in advertising their abilities to obtain the lowest cost insurance for their insureds, Learn why.  8/25/2012

An Irate Customer Threatens Insurance Agent!  An irate American Family customer in WA allegedly threatened to up shoot an insurance office in the manner of the recent Colorado theatre tragedy.  8/11/2012

7 Employer Danger Signs: “When to Turn Down a Job Offer”  AmFam seems to want to hire many new agents these days. Here’s a heads up for those people who might be considering employment with any company.  7/23/2012

The Future of Producer Compensation! This article states: “It is a fact that many people with the title “producer” don’t produce. They service and they accept what comes to them, but they do not produce.” Read this and then ponder the reasons why so many agents are getting 6-month termination notices….they’re not producing! But then just think about how captive agents’ hands are tied when the only company you sell for has remarkably high rates? Write NAAFA with your thoughts! NAAFAwest@comcast.net  7/20/2012

JD Power Ranks Insurers on Customer Service! AmFam Scores!! The good news is that American Family came in 3rd, beating out most of our captive competitors. One has to ask, “As online shopping increases, what is the future for captive field agents?” It’s good to know your competition.  5/6/2012

Why Agents & Customers Choose Higher-priced Insurers! Agents are often frustrated when their rates are too high, but this survey may give you some hope. Whether you are captive or independent, knowing what the customer is looking for and other information in this article may help you make that sale.  4/12/2012

American Family rated Worst by Insure.com says CBS Money Watch. This is hard to take when you are an agent for that company, but even more difficult when you are a customer! The tendency by the company is to say the survey is skewed because JD Powers certainly never rated them that low. But instead of trying to discredit the findings of Insure.com, why not say, “OK, gang, what are we going to do about it?” [More on this in the next issue of The NAAFA Report.]  1/17/2012

Allstate Agent Association (NAAPA) Votes Overwhelmingly to Affiliate with OPEIU  a division of AFL-CIO. Technically, they will be classified as a guild. What are the implications for other captive agents? Perhaps this action will spark some interest and give some hope to other groups. We’d like to hear from you. Email us at NAAFAwest@comcast.net.  8/17/2011

FreeAdvice.com is a site where customers can post their thoughts regarding their insurance companies. See what customers are saying about American Family. Scroll down to get the most recent comments.  11/15/2010

Want to “vent” about your job or company? www.jobvent.com is the place to do it. Read what others are saying, also.  7/23/2010

Did you know copiers have hard drives?  
Information that you copy could fall into the hands of the wrong people, particularly the company you lease your copier from. Agents BEWARE!  5/16/2010

What Every Agent and Customer Should Know About Clue Reports!  1/23/2010

IRS Private Letter Rulings!
        American Family agents, and other captive agents, are considered independent contractors by the IRS. Since the IRS issued Private Letter Rulings for most of the captive companies, captive agents who filed SS-8’s found their appeal rejected immediately because of these Private Letter Rulings. Very few agents have actually read the 111-page Correspondence between AmFam and the IRS, nor have they read the summary American Family Private Letter Ruling so we are posting both of them for you. You will be interested to read about how little ‘control’ the company is supposed to have over the operation of your agency.
        Information in an Allstate Private Letter Ruling states that an independent contractor agent has an “economic interest” in the customer list, and agents will realize this ‘interest’ when they are either paid by a 3rd party for their business OR the agent receives termination benefits based on a formula designed to equal a fair market value of their accounts. [Paragraph 6 under Independent Contractor Phase, (Allstate Ruling)]
        This presumes a fiscal value which should allow an agent to claim capital gain when paid termination benefits. Even more interesting is the fact that AmFam issued a document that says “Formerly called Extended Earnings, the name was changed to “Termination Benefits.” These are payments made to the former agents not to compete.” (See SECA Kit)
        The non-compete clause applies for one year.The AmFam contract does not state that a customer list cannot be used after the one year because logic would dictate that you’d have to have in your possession a customer list in order to begin competing after the one year.

Courts Allowing Private Facebook Posts as Evidence in Lawsuits!
Facebook Comments May Get You Into Trouble! We knew it was only a matter of time until information found on Facebook could be used as evidence in court cases. Well, here it is!  2/4/2011


The 20 Common Law Factors of a Perfect Independent Contractor Relationship

Deliberately Misclassified? What Allstate Has In Common With FedEx!
This article appeared recently in the Allstate Agent Association’s Winter 2008/2009 issue of the FOCUS. The article deals with the ongoing question of whether captive agents are independent contractors or employees. We suggest you read this article carefully. You might find you are able to substitute American Family’s name each time you see Allstate’s name. Quoted from the article, “If it Quacks Like A Duck, It’s Probably a Duck.”  3/14/2008

Captive Agents, the Forgotten People!"
NAAFA is again honoring agents’ requests to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution regarding this article, but we think this is perhaps one of the best letters we have received which summarizes the position and fate of all captive agents in America. You won’t want to miss this!  2/28/2008