From around the world comes:

Way to go! In just two years, our CEO has doubled his compensation package and made a total of $2,072,946 in 1999. And just two years ago he was struggling through life and making only $1,027,293. And officers Katz, Schofield and Faulwell had increases in the 50% range in the same period.

Just wait agency force, you too can increase your income. All you have to do is get your CSR/secretary to work for free!

July is upon us and I am sitting here anxiously awaiting my $20 IVANS connection. Has anyone seen where and how I sign up? I just can't wait!

Here's an interesting story. Apparently, all solicitation letters you send out are supposed to be blessed by the home office. An agent in the Western states found out that his solicitation letter concerning Homeowners Plus only had to be blessed by the state office. So are Farmers BRAND Products not really Farmers products?

An agent recently called the Car Buying Service requesting information.  What he got was a pitch to finance the car through the service (at a lower rate than he could personally offer) and a question concerning Mechanical Breakdown on the finance agreement. Has anyone else run into this?

At a recent Toppers Club, an agent heading a workshop was quoted as saying, I put 139% of my income back into my agency." When asked how he does that, he replied, "I own two other businesses." Excuse me, but isn't the management company trying to stop agents from having multiple occupations?

Try www.fairisaac.com to see the first breakdown of the scoring system.  There has been a lot of pressure on FICO lately and it appears to be paying off for the consumer.

And speaking of Fair Isaac, the state of Minnesota has a problem with Farmers (and all insurance companies) running FARA scores on existing customers without the proper authorization. The state office has sent out notification to all agents telling them not to order FARA scores until a new authorization form is prepared.

According to Insurance Week magazine, "Zurich American Insurance Co, the primary insurer for Microsoft, is seeking a ruling in US Federal Court that the policy does not cover defense costs or damages in private antitrust lawsuits filed against the software giant." One estimate says $4 billion may be spent in the case.

The Marty Tour is getting interesting reviews. Seems the audience is treated to 3 1/2 hours of talking without a chance to stand and stretch their legs.  That's kind of tough on the system.  In Austin, Marty is quoted as saying, "Don't believe we want to operate at 19% above the market." Why would he say that when a part of Harris County (Houston) just took an 18% increase on top of the Marshall Swift increase? And they were not highly competitive prior to the increase! Also, that old "Shame on you" phrase was spoken several times. It is bad when agents write business with competitors but OK when the management company places the Homeowners Plus with the same Sears that joined with Hartford to write property and casualty business on Sears customers.