Peerless Insurance based in Keene, NH sells insurance throughout New England
Liberty Mutual will be phasing out eight regional brands in 2013 in order to put more focus on the Liberty Mutual brand. This will include the Peerless Insurance brand, which has been in operation since 1901 and currently serves the Northeast region out of its Keene, New Hampshire headquarters.
The other seven regional brands that will be retired include: America First Insurance, Colorado Casualty, Golden Eagle Insurance, Indiana Insurance, Liberty Northwest, Montgomery Insurance and Ohio Casualty.
Christopher Goetcheus, Senior Public Relations Consultant for Peerless says that the move to retire these names really originates from the feedback it has received from its agents. “Over time, agents have communicated to us that Liberty Mutual name is a much stronger selling point than the regional brand names,” explains Goetcheus. If given the chance he continued, “Agents said that they would prefer to align themselves with the Liberty Mutual brand name.”
Personal Lines through SafeCo and Commercial/Business Lines Through Liberty Mutual
At this year’s Big Event, Agency Checklists spoke with representatives of SafeCo, another Liberty Mutual subsidiary which sells insurance via independent insurance agents, who intimated that its company was planning a greater presence here. Based on that information, the question of whether or not these eight regional brands might one day all be subsumed under the SafeCo brand name was put to Mr. Goetcheus.
“Safeco will continue as Safeco,” he answered. “It will continue to sell personal lines in the same regions and in the 49 states that it currently does through independent agents. Commercial and business insurance with under $100,000, which traditionally has been the market for these regional brands, will now be sold through Liberty Mutual.”
How will the transition from Peerless to Liberty Mutual affect Massachusetts agents
“It won’t. It really is business as usual, even though the brand is going away” responded Goetcheus to the question of how these changes will affect Massachusetts agents. “The operations are not changing at all. We will continue to have the same President and Regional Vice Presidents as we did with Peerless along with a full contingent of underwriting capabilities.”
One thing that will affect Massachusetts agents, however, he says is that agents will have more opportunities from representing the Liberty Mutual versus the Peerless brand. “In transitioning to the Liberty Mutual name, we really have strengthened and expanded the market for our agents in terms of the breadth and depth of offerings that are now available to them.”
When asked whether this restructuring has also created a desire for new agent appointments, particularly in Massachusetts, Goetcheus says that, “As for agency appointments, we are always looking for new appointments that will be the right fit for our company.”
For those agents, who might be intrigued by an appointment with Liberty Mutual, the Boston-based company recently celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2012. As of 2011, the company was the second largest in the United States with the Insurance Information Institute calculating its market share at 5.3% with approximately $26,658,768 in direct premiums written.
