The Hartford Joins Agents’ Trusted Choice Website for Small Commercial Lines

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The Trusted Choice.com website has snagged a leading agency system insurer to help independent agencies sell more small business policies online.

The Hartford has joined the TrustedChoice.com online commercial insurance platform backed by the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America (Big “I”).

The Hartford said it will pilot the program in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington, D.C.

The Trusted Choice.com website connects people shopping for insurance with a local independent agent. When an insurance buyer specifies an insurance need, the proprietary search engine displays a list of local independent insurance agents. The insurance buyers then choose the agency with which they wish to work.

The website, which previously offered only personal lines, started including commercial lines last October. It has been averaging more than 200,000 visitors a month, with 40 percent of that being commercial lines traffic, according to the company.

There are 59 carriers total participating on the site, with 10 offering commercial lines.

The brand represents more than 27,000 independent agency locations.

Comparative rating, offered with some personal lines transactions, is not available on the commercial side at this time.

“Independent agents are fundamental to our business and we continuously look for ways to help them grow,” said Stephanie Bush, senior vice president of Small Commercial insurance at The Hartford.

“Adding The Hartford to our platform provides independent agents with more opportunity to capture new commercial insurance clients,” said Chip Bacciocco, CEO of TrustedChoice.com.

Trusted Choice has nine major carrier investors.

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