Tyler Asher is president of independent agent distribution, leading Safeco personal lines and Liberty Mutual business lines.

Independent agents are at the center of everything we do. Our success depends on your success, and feedback and collaboration are essential to how we deliver a best-in-class agent experience.

The Advisory Council process is one of the most important ways we collect that feedback and collaborate on the topics that are most pressing for our agency partners. The robust, yearlong process includes several regional and committee-level meetings where groups of dedicated agents come together with Liberty Mutual and Safeco leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities we are collectively facing. The process ultimately culminates in the National Advisory Council (NAC).

For the first time this year, both the Safeco and Liberty Mutual business lines NAC events took place in the same week – offering a holistic view of the ways we can improve the agent experience as a collaborative IA distribution organization. Both groups addressed topics spanning from product to claims, underwriting to technology. The outcome is a set of registry items put forth by each council as a roadmap for the coming year, and a commitment from us to make progress on those items.

As we look forward to 2022, the process has helped shape our priorities. Across Safeco and business lines, those priorities are focused on three key areas:

• Increasing the speed in which we update existing products and bring new, competitve products to market
• Continuing our technology transformation, with a focus on modernizing our quoting platforms
• Improving the underwriting and claims experience to ensure agents and our mutual customers receive the best possible service from our team

Safeco NAC president and owner of Mountain State Agency Alliance, Kristin Garlow, offered her perspective on how the advisory council process benefits all agents:

“The advisory council offers an opportunity for open dialogue and transparent discussion. We tackle difficult topics, provide insights into changing market conditions, and bring together agent feedback from across the country to advise on a go-forward strategy. I’m encouraged by the positive change that has been brought about during my tenure and know the NAC will continue to guide us forward for years to come.”

Jerry Heming, Liberty Mutual business lines NAC president and director of commercial lines at Van Meter Insurance, reflected on our past successes and the opportunities we have together going forward:

“As a long-time member of the advisory council, it’s been a great privilege to serve in the presidency role during a time of transformation. In 2020, the feedback provided by the advisory council was imperative to Liberty Mutual’s COVID response. As we continue to navigate a market in flux, the council will remain a central force for leading business lines into the future. I look forward to seeing many of the positive changes we’ve influenced come to fruition in 2022 and beyond.”

Thank you to Kristin and Jerry for your service this year, and to each advisory council member for your dedication to a process that benefits thousands of agents appointed with Liberty Mutual and Safeco.

All agents are encouraged to participate by providing feedback and can do so by reaching out directly to a council member. Directories of Regional and National Advisory Council members are available on the Liberty Mutual Agents Portal. We appreciate your continued partnership and look forward to another year of growth and progress, together.

Stay well,

Tyler Asher

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Hackers are targeting the personal and financial data that passes through online quoting and rating systems – and the credentials you use to log in to those systems are a common starting point for these attacks.

What you need to do                                            

The best way to reduce the impact of credentials theft is to reset your password regularly – at minimum every 90 days, and immediately after a staff member leaves your agency. Other tactics recommended for safeguarding data on the systems you use:

• Avoid sharing passwords among staff as this increases the risk and impact of a data breach.
• Never use the same user ID and password for multiple systems.
• Always keep the email address and phone number associated with your account up-to-date.
• Safeguard your user IDs and passwords – and never post them where they can be seen, such as on sticky notes or in spreadsheets.
• Learn about common social engineering ploys – methods hackers use to gain your trust and compromise the security of your systems.

What we’re doing

Earlier this year, we required agencies to reset their passwords for our systems – something we’ll continue to require periodically.

In a couple of months, we’ll start rolling out multi-factor authentication for agency log-ins – a security feature that will make our systems much more secure. Note that all agency log-ins will require multi-factor authentication in the near future.

Multi-factor authentication will make it nearly impossible to share IDs and passwords, so we’re strongly advising agencies to create unique credentials for their staff and update them regularly. To obtain your own unique ID, contact your agency administrator.

Doing business with us is even easier with eCLIQ Simple. Check out this recent change:

• Comprehensive and collision coverage are no longer automatically added when quoting auto new business in eCLIQ Simple. Get an initial baseline quote at a lower price and then work with your client to add the coverages they need.

Learn more about this change.