From around the world comes:

Inflation or gouging? Earlier this year, UFAA made two Technology videos (Which you really should see if you haven't already.) and distributed them to all the Chapters. One video was 53 minutes long and the other was only about 10 minutes long. If we needed extra videos, the cost was approximately $3.50 per copy. Since then, costs in the video marketplace have apparently skyrocketed. We have been told that the new "YES" video (The one you show to your youthful drivers.) will cost you $7.00 per copy. That's double the cost UFAA was quoted just last May and UFAA's estimate was based on a far smaller quantity! Must be inflation, right?

Sometime last year, when the marriage of Foremost and Farmers was announced, representatives of Foremost were calling agents around the country and inquiring about their mobile home business. "I have 32 policies with ABC Company." said one agent. "I have 14 policies with XYZ Corp." said another.  And so it went. It now appears that the detailed answers given by the agents have found their way back to the respective DMs.

Arizona, California and Nevada recently received a bulletin concerning changes to the Homeowner Plus program. The overall price is lower. Some mandatory coverages are now optional. The 30-day wait on real estate transactions can be eliminated (at a cost). And, commissions were reduced to 14% on both new and renewal business. The bulletin states, "Each of the partners, Farmers, Sears and Zurich, reduced its profit margin to accommodate these changes." Now that is interesting because it seems to differ from what Marty said on his world vision tour. Remember hearing, "Farmers does not make a dime off of Value Added policies."?

Joe Frey of Insure.com recently wrote about the J. D. Powers and Associates recently completed survey of insurance customers. On agents, the survey said, "One-third of all policyholders surveyed say the will NEVER give up their agent. "An auto insurer selling on the Internet or phone would have to discount its policies by $200 to pull just 36 percent of the survey respondents away from their agents." The article further states, "The No.1 reason policyholders defect is because of better price."

DM Don Watschke, in Torrence, California gets one "Attaboy" and one "other" in this week's update. In September, he sent a letter to local real estate agents and escrow officers soliciting their business on behalf of his agents.  That is a DM supporting the agents in his district. However, he also created a mandatory weekly report for all the agents to do.