The other day we had a call for a quote on Oklahoma auto insurance. Our agent put together a quote and when she was going over it, the caller wanted to know which company the quote was with. So our agent kindly told her, it was with Mercury Insurance .  But the caller wanted to know if we could give her a quote with State Farm.  The agent explained that we don’t sell State Farm, but we are able to sell many other companies that are just as comparable.  We are an independent agent and State Farm, Farmers, All State, Shelter, and AAA are captive agents.

Well this is confusing to some people and really unless you’re in the insurance industry you wouldn’t be expected to know that kind of information. So I figured it would be helpful to explain the difference between a captive agent and an independent agent.

A captive agent can only sell insurance for one company, the company they work specifically for.  State Farm agents can only sell State Farm insurance. They are actually under contract that they will not sell insurance for any other company except the one company they work for. If you don’t meet the guidelines set by their company, a captive agent cannot write your insurance.

Now an independent agent has a little bit more freedom. They can become appointed (or hired) by many companies. Our agency, RCI Insurance, writes for more than 27 different companies. Since we have that freedom to pick and choose who we write insurance through, you as the client often times get a better deal and the best coverage for the best price.  If a client doesn’t meet the guidelines for one company, we have many more companies we can quote you with.  Independent agents cannot sell insurance for any captive companies.

Captive agents are captive to the company they sell for. They can only sell for one company. An independent agent is independent. They don’t sell for any one company, unless they choose to be.  They sell for however many different companies they want.  So you just have to figure out which type of agent works best for you.