Welcome to today’s episode of The Murray Group Mailbag, where we answer your questions about insurance. Today’s question comes from Tammy in Ballston Spa, NY and Tammy asks:
What is the difference between an insurance company vs insurance agency?
Watch the video below or read the video’s transcript if you don’t have the capability of watching the video. If you’d like to submit your own question, you can do so in the comment section below this post, on our Facebook page or you can email us at insurance@murraygrp.com.
What is the difference between an insurance company vs insurance agency?
Watch this short video to get the whole answer.
Video Transcript:
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Murray Group Mailbag. My name is Ryan Hanley. I’m the director of marketing and sales here for The Murray Group. In each episode we answer one question submitted directly by people in the community who are interested in something about insurance, have a question, looking for an answer. We’ve put it to video, because we figure if one person has the question then we know more people do, and we want to provide easy public access, completely free, for people to find answers to their insurance questions.
As you can tell, the show’s unscripted. Today’s question comes from Tammy, who lives in Ballston Spa. She asked, “What is the difference between an insurance company and an insurance agency?”
Very, very common question. A lot of people use the two terms almost interchangeably. Insurance companies and insurance agencies are two completely separate entities. The insurance company is the organization with which you actually have the insurance contract with. You pay your premiums to the insurance company. In the event that you ever have a claim, the insurance company is the one that pays you for your loss. Travelers, Adirondack, New York Central Mutual, State Farm, GEICO, these are all insurance companies.
The Murray Group is an insurance agency. We are insurance advisors. We basically translate the insurance contract, the language. We have experience in the way that insurance policies work. And agencies like ours, which is an independent insurance agency, we take the different companies and we help you find the best coverage, the best price, the best product for you and your particular situation.
There are three different setups. You can go directly to insurance companies. That would be your GEICOs. You can go through agencies that only write with one company. These are called captive insurance agencies. That would be State Farm, Nationwide, Allstate. Or, you can go through an independent insurance agency who can write with whatever carrier they feel best suits their people, many times multiple carriers.
In our particular agency, we actually have over 35 contracts with different carriers, all to suit the various needs of our particular client base. Every independent insurance agency has multiple contracts.
The difference between the two is an insurance agency is your advocate, is going to fight for you and work with you in the event that something happens or you have a life change and need a particular product, whereas the insurance company is the provider of the insurance and is more concerned about making sure they run their business in a way that if something happens they can pay you for that damage. So you, insurance consumer, the insurance agency sits between you, you are the insurance consumer, and the insurance company who you ultimately have the contract with.
If you have questions about that process, if that seems kind of convoluted, please just ask them in the comments below. I hope, Tammy, that answered your question about the difference between what an insurance company is and an insurance agency, two completely separate entities.
If you, who are watching, have an additional insurance question you can always leave that in the comments below. You can go to our Facebook page, just search for The Murray Group and you’ll find us. Or, you can send us an e-mail at insurance@Murraygrp.com. That’s insurance@Murraygrp.com. We’ll do our best to make sure that your question gets answered in one of the future episodes of The Murray Group Mailbag. Thank you.
This video is part of an ongoing series dedicated to helping consumers get answers to their insurance questions.
If you’d like to follow along on YouTube, connect below:
If you have questions about your insurance program or if you would like to receive a proposal for auto or home insurance coverage, please give us a call at 518-777-7777 or email us at insurance@murraygrp.com. You can also click here to contact us through our website.
We’re here to help you find peace of mind.
Thank you and good luck,
Ryan Hanley, CIC
[schema type=”organization” orgtype=”LocalBusiness” url=”https://murraygrp.com/” name=”The Murray Group Insurance Services, Inc.” description=”Insurance to protect your family, business and life.” street=”1807 Western Avenue” city=”Albany” state=”New York” postalcode=”12203″ country=”US” email=”insurance@murraygrp.com” phone=”518-777-7777″ ]