ProducerSparkGlossary
Insurance distribution glossary.
Plain-English definitions of the terms wholesale and retail insurance producers use every day, from E&S and binding authority to submissions and appetite.
Market structure.
Wholesale insurance broker
A wholesale insurance broker is an intermediary that places insurance for retail agents and brokers rather than for the insured directly.
Read →Retail insurance agent
A retail insurance agent (or retail producer) is a licensed insurance professional who works directly with the people and businesses buying insurance.
Read →Managing general agent (MGA)
A managing general agent (MGA) is a specialized agent or broker that an insurer has authorized to underwrite and, depending on its agreement, bind coverage on the insurer's behalf.
Read →Binding authority
Binding authority is the power, granted by an insurer in a written agreement, to put coverage in force on the insurer's behalf without sending each risk back for approval.
Read →Producer (insurance)
An insurance producer is a person who sells, solicits or negotiates insurance, and the term includes both insurance agents and insurance brokers.
Read →Account manager (insurance agency)
An account manager at an insurance agency is the person who services a book of clients day to day: gathering renewal information, preparing submissions, handling endorsements and certificates, and answering client questions.
Read →Markets and compliance.
Excess and surplus lines (E&S)
Excess and surplus lines (E&S) insurance, also called surplus lines, is coverage written by non-admitted insurers for risks the standard admitted market will not or cannot cover.
Read →Admitted vs non-admitted carrier
An admitted carrier is an insurer licensed by a state to do business there; it follows that state's rate and form rules and its policyholders are protected by the state guaranty fund.
Read →Surplus lines tax and filings
Surplus lines taxes and filings are the state requirements that apply when coverage is placed with a non-admitted insurer.
Read →Appetite (carrier or wholesaler)
Appetite is the set of risks an insurer, MGA or wholesaler wants to write: the classes of business, territories, limits and account sizes it will quote, and the ones it declines.
Read →Submission (wholesale)
A submission is a request for a quote: the package of information about a risk that a producer sends to an underwriter, or that a retail agent sends to a wholesaler.
Read →Lines and data.
Commercial lines vs personal lines
Commercial lines insurance covers the risks of businesses and other organizations, such as general liability, commercial property, commercial auto and workers' compensation.
Read →Inland marine insurance
Inland marine insurance covers property that moves or is hard to insure at a single fixed location, such as goods in transit over land, contractors' equipment and tools, and buildings under construction.
Read →Habitational insurance
Habitational insurance is industry shorthand for commercial property and liability coverage on buildings where people live, such as apartment complexes, condominium associations, homeowners associations and similar residential rental property.
Read →Form 5500
Form 5500 is the annual report that many employee benefit plans file under ERISA, developed jointly by the U.S. Department of Labor, the IRS and the PBGC.
Read →Definitions are based on public sources such as the NAIC, WSIA, IRMI, state insurance departments and the U.S. Department of Labor, listed on each page. General information, not legal or tax advice.